Home Sales Falling, Condo & Foreclosure Auctions Rising
After a brief head-fake upward in December, the number of existing homes sold in January fell 5.3 percent in January; the January number was slightly higher than November and 8.6 percent lower than a year earlier. And the cheery news doesn’t stop there: The median home price dropped to $170,300, the lowest level since March…
After a brief head-fake upward in December, the number of existing homes sold in January fell 5.3 percent in January; the January number was slightly higher than November and 8.6 percent lower than a year earlier. And the cheery news doesn’t stop there: The median home price dropped to $170,300, the lowest level since March 2003. Given this backdrop, it’s no surprise that condo developers are turning increasingly to companies that specialize in auctions to move blocks of unsold units, as The Times reports today; as the auction trend hits New York, Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel predicts market-clearing prices 40 to 45 percent below the asking prices of a year ago. Meanwhile, sales volume is rising in some of the hardest-hit markets, a sign, theorizes Floyd Norris, that banks are getting more aggressive is their approach to foreclosure sales.
Home Sales and Prices Continue to Plummet [NY Times]
And Do I Hear $2 Million? No? [NY Times]
Foreclosure Sales Continue [NY Times]
Graphic from The New York Times
Tax cuts??? Tax cuts are the answer to the economic crisis? Give me a break!
We have had nothing but tax cuts for eight years and where has it gotten us? The “stimulus” checks some of us received last year went straight into savings and did nothing to stop the downward slide.
In a crisis like this, only the government has the capacity to act forcefully to prevent further economic collapse. Private actors are simply not going to turn this thing around.
Benson, Dave, and others — I suppose you subscribe to the quackery that says that Roosevelt caused the Great Depression???
It is universally acknowledged that the Depression was ended by the MASSIVE spending that accompanied the United States entry into WWII. What I hadn’t known is that it seems that the economy had started to improve before then, but that FDR backed off stimulus spending in 1937, effectively choking off the recovery that was underway.
benson- I guess you can write whatever scenario you like. I did not blame everything on the republicans. In fact my response about them was in reply to someone else talking about “dumbass democrats.” It seems however that the republican party is not about to take responsibility ofr the last 8 years and the bloating of the government or anything else. How does that work? In fact I haven’t seen or heard reepublicans doing anyhting but bitch nd moan about Obama and the stimulus. Where was the bitching and moaning over Bush policies? Or shipping jobs offshore? Or the cost of the unnecessary War in Iraq? Or the use of waterboarding? Or the relaxtion of regulations on the financial markets? All I can say is that if Bobby Jindal is the face of the new Republican Party it looks to be the same as the old Republican Party- the one that didn’t work out too well for us.
My intention in that post was nothing more than to talk about a concept as I see it- it’s your problem if you can figure that out. You and I are not having the same conversation. It’s the old Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus thing..
Snark;
Really?
The largest cut in tax rates was put in place by JFK in 1961, followed by 8 strong years of growth. The next largest cut in tax rates was put in place by Reagan in 1981, followed by 7 strong years of growth.
Condos are dead. Long live the Brooklyn brownstone. Can’t argue with the economics.
Yes Dave, and thus a return to pre 2004 prices
Benson: I have no idea re: actual rate of turnover.
Inventory had been inordinately low through 2004-2007…this is simply a return to normal so far.
Oh lord, the old tax cuts line.
Doesn’t work, never did.
Accept that and move on.
Benson, total supply is completely irrelevant. It is all about inventory, and 22,000 I believe is 50% of current inventory. Something tells me that just might change the supply / demand dynamic a little?