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Las Vegas, Fort Myers, Florida Lead U.S. Cities in Foreclosures

Las Vegas and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida led U.S. metropolitan areas in foreclosures in the first half of the year as unemployment and falling home prices forced home-loan defaults,

The Las Vegas area had the highest rate of foreclosure filings, with 7.5 percent of households receiving a default or auction notice or being seized by a lender. That rate was six times the national average. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers region, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, was second, with a rate of 7.2 percent.

“Foreclosure activity continued its upward trajectory nationwide and in the majority of metro areas in the first half of the year,” James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement. “While some of the markets that had the highest saturation of foreclosures over the past few years have seen declining rates, new markets like Provo, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, have seen large increases.”

Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped 17.1 percent in May from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Nationwide, home prices have fallen 21 percent since peaking in July of 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors in Chicago. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, the highest in almost 26 years, the U.S. Labor Department said on July 2.

» RealtyTrac [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Housing Market Shows Some Signs Of Recovery

"This is the first time in almost three years that we've seen price increases," says Yale University professor Robert Shiller, who helped design the home price index. "So when we see a break in the downward trend that's definitely encouraging news."

"Well, I think the worst is probably behind us — the worst pace of decline," he says. "We were going down at 2 percent a month for a number of months in a row nationally. That was really something. Now home prices relative to rents or construction costs are back at normal levels."

So have we finally hit bottom for the housing market?

"Well, I think it very much depends on what city you're in," says William Wheaton, a housing economist at MIT. "There are really two types of markets right now."

Wheaton says on the one hand, there are markets like Arizona, California and Florida, which have seen huge price corrections — down 30-50 percent — driven by a flood of foreclosure sales. Then there are other parts of the U.S. that haven't seen such big price drops.

In some places where prices have corrected sharply, a lot of people are able to get very good deals on houses.

"If you're in a market like California, where prices have fallen 50 percent and transactions have picked up and you ask your friendly professor 'Is this the bottom?' I would say pretty much so," Wheaton says." If you could buy a house [for] 50 percent of what you could a few years ago, I'd say go ahead and buy it."

Wheaton says there are many other markets where prices haven't fallen that much, and he thinks some could still drift lower. The local employment picture is also a significant factor.

[ PDF ] Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index, July 28, 2009

New US home sales up 11% in June

New house sales in the US jumped by 11 per cent in June, providing some of the strongest evidence yet that the market has bottomed out after being savaged for three years.

Greater demand is also chipping away at the housing glut. Last month the supply of new homes fell by 4.1 per cent to 281,000. That was the lowest level since 1998 and represented an 8.8 months supply of new homes, down from 10.2 in May.

» FT [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Recessionomics: Tim Geithner Can't Sell House, Either

After a Price Drop ($1.635 million), the Treasury Secretary Decides to Rent His House ($7,500 a month) and He's Not Alone.

» ABC [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Buyers Flee, Signals Fleeting Builder Rally

The largest homebuilders are mothballing communities across the U.S., signaling they have little confidence that a market rebound is imminent. Builder shares have rallied 76 percent from the lows in November. They may fall more than 20 percent in the next four months unless home prices and property writedowns stabilize

“Until we see job losses abate and foreclosures begin to decline, rather than increase as we expect, there is unlikely to be a catalyst for the builders,” Torma said. “It’s going to continue to be a challenging environment.” The Standard & Poor’s index of home construction companies rose less than 1 percent today, after falling earlier as much 3.2 percent.

The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, was little changed from 18.6 million a year earlier, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The quarterly homeownership rate was 67.3 percent, seasonally adjusted

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Mortgage rates down for 4th week

July 22, 2009 -- The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 3 basis points, to 5.55 percent. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.77 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.8 percent. The Fed "believes that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will be appropriate for an extended period." (The Fed will keep short-term rates low for a long time)

» Markets [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Podcast: Should you invest in coastal property?

Can auctioning your cash to the highest bidder earn you a better deal? Is it worth paying more for a coastal property? Plus - could you get a better mortgage deal from China?

[ MP3 ] Should you invest in coastal property?