The first quarter ended with decent home sales activity. Single family and condominium sales were up 33% from the same period last year. The remainder of the year should be better still for the followng reasons:
~ More jobs
~ Rising apartment rents
~ Rising stock market wealth
~ Home values at historically justifiable levels
~ Continuing high affordability conditions
~ Investors looking to hedge against inflation
~ Foreigners buying U.S. homes on the cheap
“Still the stars are not all aligned. High gas prices are a daily reminder that something is not right with the economy and will hold back consumer confidence. Washington policy makers are debating the ending of government quaranteed mortgages and requiring minimum down payment of 10 to 20% on conventional mortgages, even though the FHA and VA mortgage programs have very low down payments and have yet to require a single dime of taxpayer’s money”, writes a chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.
At least the improving 2011 market developments should outweigh the negative impact imposed by Washington policymakers. Having said that, here is last week’s market update…
[image title=”market update 5.20.2011″ size=”large” id=”1155″ align=”none” linkto=”viewer” ]
[image title=”market update-2 copy” size=”large” id=”1157″ align=”none” linkto=”viewer” ]