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
Bxgrl;
Aw come on. Look at your post – it really does read like a campaign speech. It might be satisfying to label this all the fault of “greedy” Republicans, but where is the talk of actual policy?? Where is the talk of doing a reality check with the facts on the ground, which is why I brought up the Labor Party and the UK?
Lechacal: point taken. Do you know what the annual turnover in the NYC market is? I don’t know. I do think another factor that needs to be taken into consideration, however, is the still-strong demand. I live right near all the 4th Ave condos that are going up. Whether they stay condo or go rental, the key point is that they are all still occupied.
It’s funny that mention JDSU, because I am intimately involved with that industry. I knew Jozeph D. Straus (the “JDS” of JDSU) personally.
Wasn’t the last 8 years about tax breaks- and we see how that worked out.
christopher is right. There doesn’t seem to be any real “change.” A flat tax rate would solve many problems quite quickly.
The stimulus package wont create jobs or get empolyers to hire. It’s intended, and Obama has said this, to “stop layoffs”. The great “job creation” line has become “saving jobs”. Big difference.
You want companies to start hiring again? Tax breaks. You want people to start spending again? Tax breaks. And no $65 a check rebate/tax credit nonsense. If someone pays 25% tax, they get cut to the 20% bracket. Lop 5% off everyone’s tax bracket and that’ll get people to reinvest in the economy.
This stimulus package is just ego stroking and it’s only hurting the overall economy in this country.
Put real dollars back into the hands of the employers, employees, and consumers in general and that’ll be what works. Not tax credits, not pork projects. Straight up cash.
“Going to the issue of NYC real estate and referring to dcorreale’s post: there are 3,000,000 units of housing in NYC. I would like to know how the addition of 30,000 new units, 1% of the total, is going to cause a crash? I’ll repeat my assertion: the NYC housing market is not Phoenix or Florida. We do not have an oversupply situation looming. What we do have is a bad economy, which will certainly affect pricing, but not to the degree of these other markets.”
Eh Benson, I know you have a Pentium 1 Computer from 1999 but refresh your browser and read this story…
Owners of 133 Water Street Go Belly Up
http://bstoner.wpengine.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/02/owners_of_133_w.php#comments
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported (and multiple outlets re-reported) that Water Street Realty Group LLC, the owner of the 52-unit rental building at 133 Water Street in Dumbo, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday
Now go back to sleep…
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…
benson- I do debate issues and ideas. The problem is you want to debate the same old republican talking points and I want to debate the whole issue of what’s happening. So sadly, it’s like 2 ships passing in the night.
I didn’t write a campaign speech, I wrote exactly how I see it. My degree is in anthropology so maybe that gives me a different perspective. But at least when I disagree with you, I still do you the courtesy of not denigrating what you’re saying. Be nice if you would do the same.
Benson, a 1% increase in supply can have a significant effect on a market. It’s not the total stock that matters, it’s the comparison of supply and demand, which might be 20% of total stock on a particular day (JDS Uniphase stock in 1999 might be an example) or might be a fraction of a percent in a year. If only 5% of housing stock changes hands in a particular year in NYC, a 1% increase in total housing stock should be viewed as a 20% increase in market supply. For these purposes total stock is kind of irrelevant.
benson…you’re right about the UK banking system. Howver, last night they took the necessary steps to shelter the bad assets, which is why Lloyd’s, RBS and others are up 25% or so today. The UK has taken the first really proactive move here.
Thanks 7andfive. Now I think we both need to find shelter quickly before the bombs begin falling on us 🙂