Florida Home Sales and Prices Slide in November

Home sales rise 5.6% in November
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Existing Home Sales picked up steam in November, though they are still down nearly 30% from this time last year. Sales of previously-owned homes jumped 5.6% in November to an annual rate of 4.68 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The rate was down 27.9% from 12 months earlier, when a homebuyer Tax Credit helped lift sales to a two-year high of 6.49 million. Email Print Comment The report came in slightly better than expected. A consensu...

November existing home sales up 5.6 percent
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:44am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned homes rose less than expected in November, suggesting the U.S. housing sector is still struggling to gain traction as high Unemployment and tight Lending standards continue to hamper recovery. Sales rose 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual unit rate of 4.68 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had been looking for about 4.71 million ...

Existing Home Sales Come At 4.68 Million, Miss Estimates Of 4.75 Million, Home Inventory At 9.5 Months Supply
home sales, which came at 4.68 million units, a slight improvement to the almost all time lowest number posted in October (4.43 million), a miss to expectations of 4.75 million, and 27.9% off the cyclical peak of 6.49 million from November 2009, when the first-time buyer Tax Credit expired, and was shockingly not extended. The data follows this morning atrocious MBA numbers which showed a plunge of 18.6% in Mortgage applications, and 24.6% drop in refinancings. But if you listen to Goldman, the ...

November existing home sales up 5.6 percent
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:20am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned homes rose less than expected in November, suggesting the U.S. housing sector is still struggling to gain traction as high Unemployment and tight Lending standards continue to hamper recovery. Sales rose 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual unit rate of 4.68 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had been looking for about 4.71 million ...

Sales Of NewHomes Rose 5.5PercentIn November
More people purchased new homes in November, though not enough to signal better times are ahead for the battered housing industry. Sales of new homes rose 5.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That's less than half the rate that Economists consider healthy. And the increase follows a dismal October sales pace that nearly matched the Lowest Level in 47 years. Economists believe it could take three years to get back...

Hooray? Higher mortgage rates spurred home sales uptick
The country's economic engine seems to be running in reverse as more expensive borrowing spurs Home Sales, and an uptick in borrowing sends Mortgage rates back down. The recent surge in Mortgage rates, by all rational calculations, should have made America's already troubled Housing Market worse off. Instead, higher borrowing costs modestly boosted homes sales in November. Before slipping down slightly this week, Mortgage rates had risen for several weeks in a row as yields on 10-year Treasury ...

How higher rates boosted home sales
Hooray? Higher Mortgage rates spurred Home Sales uptick Posted by Nin-Hai Tseng, writer-reporter December 23, 2010 3:18 pm The country's economic engine seems to be running in reverse as more expensive borrowing spurs home sales, and an uptick in borrowing sends Mortgage rates back down. Image by magro_kr via Flickr The recent surge in Mortgage rates, by all rational calculations, should have made America's already troubled Housing Market worse off. Instead, higher borrowing costs modestly b...

New homes sales, prices rise in November
WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 23, 2010 10:50am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Single-family Home Sales rose in November but to a lower- than- expected rate , a government report showed on Thursday, highlighting the weakness in the Housing Market even as the broader Economic Recovery gains momentum. The Commerce Department said sales increased 5.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted 290,000 unit annual rate after a downwardly revised 275,000 unit pace in October. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast ne...

Sales Of 'Existing Homes' Rose 5.6% in November
What is this? "Existing-home sales got back on an upward path in November, resuming a growth trend since bottoming in July," the National Association of Realtors just reported. It says that sales of single-family homes, townhouses, Condominiums and co-ops rose 5.6 percent from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million. Sales have now risen in three of the past four months, though they remain well below the 6.49 million pace of November 2009 — when tax incentives gave th...

C&L; Opening Bell, 12-23-10
Ho, ho, ho, C&Lers! There have been lots of naughty people in the financial industry this year! But instead of a lump of coal, many of them are getting a big Bonus check in their stockings! Let's take a look at some of the yuletide cheer they've been spreading lately! When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions wer...

Property predictions
Will house prices fall or rise in 2011? Expert commentators are divided about whether house prices will fall further, stabilise or even rise during the coming 12 months. In 2010 the property market took a turn, and a brief recovery in prices that had started in 2009 ran out of steam. The severe Rationing of Mortgages continued and, combined with an influx of would-be sellers, this produced a surplus of sellers over buyers. The result was that prices started going down again. Whatever their fore...

Existing Home Inventory increases 5.4% Year-over-Year
by CalculatedRisk on 12/22/2010 11:15:00 AM Earlier the NAR released the existing Home Sales data for November; here are a couple more graphs ... The first graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Inventory is not seasonally adjusted, so it really helps to look at the YoY change. IMPORTANT: On a seasonal basis, inventory usually bottoms in December and January, and then will start increasing again in February and March. Since the NA...

Senate fails to confirm Fannie and Freddie regulator
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nomination of North Carolina bank commissioner Joseph Smith to head the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac died on Wednesday as the U.S. Senate adjourned without acting on it. While President Barack Obama could renominate Smith to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the new Senate convenes on January 5, he may be reluctant to do so, given Republican opposition. The Republicans' hand will be even stronger next year because they will gain five more...

November Existing Home Sales: 4.68 million SAAR, 9.5 months of supply
by CalculatedRisk on 12/22/2010 10:00:00 AM The NAR reports: Existing-Home Sales Resume Uptrend with Stable Prices Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, Condominiums and co-ops, rose 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million in November from 4.43 million in October, but are 27.9 percent below the cyclical peak of 6.49 million in November 2009, which was the initial deadline for the first-time buyer Tax Credit. ... To...

Existing home sales improve, but still at distress levels
Sales of existing homes in November rose 6.7 percent over the previous month, but still 27.3 percent below the level a year ago....

D.C.'s foreclosure investigation freezes home sales for months
D.C.'s Attorney General is investigating the city's Foreclosure process, which has left homebuyers in a state of limbo. Sales of foreclosed houses in the District ground to a halt for months as the city's investigation into the Foreclosure process scared away title insurers who didn't want the risk associated with the property. And although the D.C. Office of the Attorney General is now sorting out the confusion, the stalemate has left some prospective homebuyers embittered and frustrated. "For ...

November existing home sales up 5.6 percent
Sales rose 5.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual unit rate of 4.68 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had been looking for about 4.71 million unit pace. (Reporting by Corbett B. Daly; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio) ...

New-home sales up 5.5% in November
Source: MarketWatch Sales of New Single-family homes climbed 5.5% in November, a government report said Thursday, as the Housing Market continues to show stability at weak levels. The Commerce Department said new-home sales rose to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 290,000, from a downwardly revised 275,000 in October. The sales level missed the MarketWatch-compiled Economist total of 295,000, and the initial government report said October sales were 283,000. The pace of sales is 21.2% below...

New Home Sales Up 5.5% in November, but Still Very Low
It's important to keep in mind how low sales were in October to put November's 5.5% increase in context. If October's original sales rate hadn't been revised, November's increase would have been just 2.5%. Moreover, November's rate of sales is the fifth lowest on record -- which has been kept since 1963. Considering all of that, it's pretty hard to get excited about new Home Sales increasing a little in November. The continued weakness in the market for new homes shows that home buying appetite...

New home sales improve - but recovery sluggish
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- New Home Sales edged higher in November, but the recovery remains sluggish. Sales of new homes rose 5.5% to an annual rate of 290,000 in November, the Commerce Department reported Friday. And while that shows improvement, sales are still off 21.2% from a year ago. Email Print Comment The results also fell short of analysts' expectations. Housing experts at Briefing.com expected sales to increase to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000 units, from a revised 27...

Reversion to the mean
It would appear that the Federal Reserve is beginning to wake up to the harsh reality that the power to create money through credit is not tantamount to either omnipotence or even intermediate term price supports. It's not what they're saying that is interesting, as all they're doing is stating the completely obvious. But it is very interesting indeed that it is two Economists at the Dallas Fed who are stating it in public in their Economic Letter entitled "The Fallacy of a Pain-Free Path to a...

New Home Sales Rise but Remain at Low Levels
One of these months, new Home Sales are going to show that Americans have decisively returned to buying newly built residences. Unfortunately, November was not that month, as new Home Sales rose a less-than-expected 5.5% to a 290,000-unit annual rate, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday. A Bloomberg survey had forecast new Home Sales would rise to a 300,000 annual rate in November, after falling to a revised 275,000 pace in October -- down from initial estimates of 283,000. New ho...

Home loan demand drops, lowest in nearly 1 year
By Julie Haviv NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications tumbled to their Lowest Level in nearly a year as a six-week-long rise in Interest Rates took a significant toll on demand, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers... Has QE2 worked? NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications tumbled to their Lowest Level in nearly a year as a six-week-long rise in Interest Rates took a significant toll on demand, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association on...

Home loan demand drops, lowest in nearly 1 year
By Julie Haviv NEW YORK | Wed Dec 22, 2010 7:01am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications tumbled to their Lowest Level in nearly a year as a six-week-long rise in Interest Rates took a significant toll on demand, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended December 17 decreased 18.6 percent, reaching its Lowest Level s...

Senate fails to confirm Fannie and Freddie regulator
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nomination of North Carolina bank commissioner Joseph Smith to head the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac died on Wednesday as the U.S. Senate adjourned without acting on it. While President Barack Obama could renominate Smith to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the new Senate convenes on January 5, he may be reluctant to do so, given Republican opposition. The Republicans' hand will be even stronger next year because they will gain five mor...