Inventory of Homes For Sale Highest Since 1986

The National association of REALTOR released some data today and the existing home sales cooled by 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.97 million homes. The inventory of homes for sale was up 1.2% in November to 2.900 million existing homes for sale, representing a 5.0 supply which is the highest since 1986.

The West was hit hardest and dropped 3.7% to 1.58 million sales. View the existing home sales charts.

Are Pre-Construction Real Estate Investors Getting Cold Feet?

Today the Census bureau reported the new home sale report and will studying the new home sales data I noticed something of interest.

Nationally, the amount of new homes that are sold in the pre-construction or under construction phase is at the lowest point since Dec. 04.

Real estate investors have been particularly aggressive in purchasing new pre-construction because with a small down payment and no monthly payments they are able to secure today's sales price and let the homes appreciate during the time it takes for the building to be completed which can often be a year or more.

A slowing in this important new home sales figure may be a signal that some of the real estate investors are starting to get cold feet, which may result in an increase in new home inventory which has also become apparent this month with a 4.9 month supply which is the highest amount in over a year.

New Home Sales For the West Down 22.1%

According to today's Census Bureau report regarding new home sale (download xls) new home sales were down 22.1% for the west from 439,000 units to 342,000. Seasonally new home sales always decrease in Nov. and Dec so it's hard to tell if it's really a sign of a cooling housing market. Additionally new home sale for the previous month appeared surprisingly strong and surprised many top economist. Another reason for the drop in new home sales may be due to the highest mortgage rates since July of 2002.

California Real Estate Prices UP 16.2% but Real Estate Sales Down 11.2%

The CAR released some stats today regarding median existing home prices for November. Some highlights:

Prices Increased 16.2% in November
Sales decreased 11.2% over same time last year.
Total Closed Escrows: 579,560 up to November.
Unsold invetory index: 3.9 months up from 2.8 months same time last year.
Average Marketing Time: 39 days to sell a home

15 cities in California experianced a decline in prices from last year.

View Data Charts from the CAR

Survey Reveals That Wealthy Still Confident on Real Estate Market

An excellent survey was released today by PNC Financial Services which indicated that about 66% of wealthy Americans expect to see double-digit increases in the value of their primary homes over the next five years, with about 33% of them anticipating the value to rise 20 percent or more. Floridians had the most aggressive outlook on real estate while the north east was a little more conservative.

Cooling Real Estate Market? Not According to Builders

Although much of the recent news has been about cooling real estate markets and possible bubbles, looks like builders are still confident according to today's Census Bureau Housing Starts Report

Building Permits: Up 2.5% over Oct 2005 and 3% over Nov 2004
Housing Starts: Up 4.8% over Oct 2005 and up a whopping 17.5% over Nov 2004
Housing Completions: Down 4.9% over Oct 2005 (may be a hurricane Season anomaly) but up 6.5% over Nov 2004.

So home builders who spend millions in research and demographic studies are still moving forward with building new homes even with rising interest rates and rising building costs. It will be interesting to see how this will balance out as an oversupply of new homes could also affect the real estate market.

California Foreclosures up 29% from Oct. to November

For those of you who like stats, here is one from Realtytrac, reported by Inman.

"California reported 6,051 new foreclosures, a 29 percent increase from October to November"

Can it be the interest-only loans starting to catch up with some people?

Housing Bubble Talk... Is it over?

There continues to be lots of talk about the housing bubbles many are wondering... yes or no to the bubble... is it all media hype or are the facts supported? Here is an article and some supporting data to help you sort out the facts. According to the report, looks like Las Vegas may be in trouble soon.

Speaking of real estate trends, Wells Fargo economists have provided their take as to what will happen with the current real estate market and they are also suggesting that it will slow but not crash.

Google Maps Housing Mash-ups... For Sale by Owner

Today, ran across this Google Maps Housing Mashups which featured For Sale by Owner Center.com