Pending Home Sales missed expectations of 0.7% increase month over month and rose only 0.4% in March 2018. February 2018 was also revised lower from 3.1% to 2.8% increase month over month. Our home region the West fell 1.1% in March month over month and 0.7% in February month over month. Our friend, Larry Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement, “Healthy economic conditions are creating considerable demand for purchasing a home, but not all buyers are able to sign contracts because of the lack of choices in inventory. It is an absolute necessity for there to be a… Read morePending home sales rose 0.4% MoM in Mar’18 missing expectations

Following up on the good news from the existing home sales in March 2018, new home sales were up 4.4%, almost double the forecasted 1.9%. February 2018’s drop of 0.6% was also revised higher to an increase of 3.6%, showing a strong two-month trend leading into the start of the spring season. There was a lot of difference in terms of growth or declines across the country with our home market the West up 28.3% in contrast to the Northeast down 54 .8%. The median new home sales price for the country increased 4.8% year over year to $337,200, near… Read moreNew Home Sales Reach 4 Month High, Nationwide Median Home Prices Near Record High

Metro Denver home price gains were mostly running at 7% for the past year. That changed this month when home prices increased to above 8% in February 2018. The metro Denver home price index measured an 8.4% annual gain in February 2018, up from a 7.6% increase in January 2017 and a 7.4% increase in December 2017. This 8.4% increase was good for fourth place in the country behind San Francisco, Las Vegas, and San Franciso and tied with Detriot. All of the leading cities saw double-digit gains. The metro Denver area also outpaced the national average which was up… Read moreMetro Denver Home Prices Gains Increased At Faster Rate in February 2018

Existing home sales saw a better than forecast 1.1% month over month increase in March, mostly driven by the Northeast and Midwest after the weather-related slowdown in February in those areas. In our home market, existing-home sales in the West declined 3.1 percent to an annual rate of 1.23 million in March, but are still 0.8 percent above a year ago. The median price in the West was $377,100, up 7.9 percent from March 2017. Another positive for affordably was housing inventory rising 5.7%. However, home prices keep rising at a faster pace than inventory. This is what Larry Yun… Read moreExisting Home Sales Continue Annual Drop

Two of the biggest leading indicators of housing, starts and permits, picked up from February 2018 into March. Starts were up 1.9% month over month but below expectations of 2.5%. Starts were down 7.0% in February before being upwardly revised to a 3.3% drop. Housing-starts data are volatile from month to month and can be subject to large revisions. March’s 1.9% rise in starts came with a margin of error of 12.4 percentage points. Permits were up 1.9% month over month in line with expectations. Permits were down 5.7% in February before being revised up to a 4.1% drop. Overall… Read moreHousing Starts and Permits Edge Up For March

Home buyers facing tough conditions this spring are keeping their home preference very traditional in an untraditional market. Housing supply has been flirting with record lows, prices touching record highs and the median home price in metro Denver area is over a half million dollars. Yet in spite of all this, home buyers want a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, complete with a garage and a kitchen that is updated according to realtor.com. There are some generation differences though in the type of homes. The majority of millennials home buyers are seeking a Colonial or contemporary home while baby boomers (those defined… Read more2018 Home Buyer Preferences and Homes For Sales. Mixing Like Oil and Water

Our old friend, who many blame for the Global Financial Crisis, is back from the dead. Subprime mortgages aka home loans to those people with low credit scores and little down payments have returned after a long absence to the housing market. After the housing and market crash, these types of loan left the market because of new regulations and low investor demand. However, like a zombie from a horror movie, these types of loans have come back to the housing market although they are being referred to as nonprime loans and with different standards. Lipstick on a pig as… Read moreBack From Dead! How Subprime Became Nonprime Mortgages Forgetting the Lessons of the Global Financial Crisis

We often take a serious view on things at this blog, pounding home stats about the limited inventory of houses in the metro Denver area, high median prices that keep on climbing month over month and borrowing terms that are getting tighter and tighter. Luckily, USA Today had a light-hearted article (we think) that highlighted the role of social media in the home purchasing decisions of millennials. One-third of all millennials when they view pictures of homes purchased by other people on social media thought “if they can buy, so can I.” Well dear millennial buyer glued to Facebook, perhaps… Read moreFacebook Made Me Do It (Or How I Stop Worrying and Became Over Leveraged and Bought My First House)

Rising home prices are causing new home buyers to go deeper and deeper into debt. According to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal, (behind a paywall) Rising Home Prices Push Borrowers Deeper Into Debt, “roughly one in five conventional mortgage loans made this winter went to borrowers spending more than 45% of their monthly incomes on their mortgage payment and other debts, the highest proportion since the housing crisis, according to new data from mortgage-data tracker CoreLogic Inc.” This was almost triple the amount for 2016 and the first half of 2017. “Debt-to-income ratios measure the share of… Read moreDebt Becomes Them, How Rising Home Prices Are Drowning Home buyers in Debt

We here at this blog focus on the metro Denver area where we have zeroed in on the low supply of houses as being the main cause of the rapid price appreciation over the last few years since the Global Financial Crisis. But our price problems pale in comparison to one city in America, where the housing supply crunch is even greater and the median home price is at a staggering $1.6 million: San Francisco. This high median home price is causing San Francisco to lose more residents than any other city in the fourth quarter of 2017. Linkedin.com recently… Read moreThe San Franciscans Are Coming! The San Franciscans Are Coming (to Denver)!