[Photo credit: PBS]
The kids at NAR are at it again, now revising their forecast for housing recovery to take place in 2008- or maybe late this year. New home sales will rise again next year because new home starts have ground to a halt. But someone else had to say that. From our buddy at the NAR, Chief Economist Lawrence Yun:
Buyers now have an overwhelming advantage given the wide selection of homes available in many marketsWhoopee. So is it officially a buyers market even if sales are down? Maybe, maybe not says the New York Times, using our very own Mill Valley as one example. Seems nationally there's a run on properties priced above $1M and below $2.5M, but not on either side of that range, and the phenomenon is blamed on foreign money. Euros go further than dollars, and yes, maybe the Dutch are buying up Marin County. So in the rest of the country, where you can buy a whole house and a yard for somewhere south of $300K, sales volumes have dropped. Too much inventory and tighter lending requirements are blamed. The irony seems that it may be a buyers market where potential buyers can't get credit. Economics 101, Larry: if there are no buyers, there is no market.
· Lawrence Yun, Partly Cloudy [Curbed]
· Home Prices Expected to Recover in 2008 as Inventories Decline [NAR]
· Horton 3Q Sales Orders Plunge 40 Percent [NY Times]
· Can’t Sell Your Home? Maybe It’s Priced Too Low[Economix/Ny Times]