By Susana Field
Bruce Carta of the Land Title Guarantee Company, aka Our Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Market Trends Guru, sent me a couple of articles last week which seem to have a bit of teeth to them. I thought I would share them with you here.
HUD chief sees early signs of housing turnaround
Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:34pm BST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. housing market is showing some early signs of a turnaround, but it’s too early to say if a full recovery is underway, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said on Wednesday.
“We do have some early signs I think that the market is stabilizing. Since January, what we’ve seen is both prices and sales volumes moving up and down around a relatively stable number,” Donovan said at the Reuters Global Financial Regulation Summit in Washington.
U.S. house prices tumbled nearly 19 percent in February. But for the first time in 16 months, the fall did not set a new record, according to data released on Tuesday by S&P Case-Shiller.
“I want to be clear, I think it’s too early to say that is a long term trend until we get a couple more months of data,” Donovan said on Wednesday.
Donovan made his comments as the Federal Reserve said the pace of deterioration in the U.S. economy appeared to be slowing but that it would continue to keep interest rates exceptionally low to ensure recovery.”
And then from: The Week Ahead in the Capital Markets – April 27, 2009
“…the bottom is coming in to view.” The bottom of the housing market, that is. Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist, believes home sales hit bottom in the first quarter of this year, and prices will bottom in the fourth quarter. Zandi expects prices to fall sharply through the summer and fall before bottoming out at the end of 2009, down 36% peak to trough.
Following the bottom, the chief economist expects prices to hold steady through 2010 before they resume rising at a modest rate in 2011 and 2012.
“I don’t expect national housing values to get back to their previous peak for more than a decade,” he said. “It’s going to be quite some time before we get back to those previous highs.”
At least mortgage rates are low.”
We would love to hear from you if you’re getting ready to start looking at Steamboat Springs single family homes, condos or land. The snow is gone from town and is melting rapidly in the surrounding countryside.
