After 8 years, the real estate market is finally looking normal again | Cross River Real Estate
The beginning of the last decade saw an unprecedented spike in real estate prices, which culminated in the bursting of the real estate bubble in 2006 and a financial crisis to boot. Then came the crash, and prices fell precipitously, with the Case-Shiller Housing Index losing 33% from its 2006 peak to the 2012 trough. But nearly just as quickly, investors flocked back to real estate as they realized that getting in at the bottom could be a great source of profit. Since the beginning of the housing recovery two years ago, the Case-Shiller index has regularly shown the national real estate market getting more than 10% pricier on a year-over-year basis.
This rapid appreciation in prices has caused the inventory of homes on the market to shrink, as prospective sellers are wary of jumping into what looks like a buyers' market. This dynamic can be especially frustrating for first-time homebuyers who face the double threat of banks wary of lending to anybody but the most creditworthy and homeowners wary of selling while prices look to be on their way up.
But new data shows that the rapidly rising home prices we saw in 2013 are expected to slow considerably this year. Historically, home prices tend to appreciate only slightly faster than inflation, and there's reason to believe that the market will settle into this pattern once again.
Last week's Case-Shiller data measuring January home prices, for instance, showed a third straight month of slight declines in national home prices on a month-over-month basis. While the index still showed that prices rose by double digits compared to last year, the fact that home prices have stopped appreciating on a month-to-month basis signals that valuations will begin leveling off.
Furthermore, data released Monday from real estate valuation firm Clear Capital -- which is more up to date than the Case-Shiller figures -- shows that non-seasonally adjusted real estate prices remained flat nationally during the winter of 2014 and that prices even fell in some regions of the country like the Midwest. The Clear Capital figures aren't seasonally adjusted, so poor winter weather likely depressed activity in some parts of the country, but the data still suggests that the rapid price increases we saw in 2013 won't be a factor in 2014.
The Clear Capital data also indicates that one of the main stories of the real estate recovery -- cash-rich investors buying up single-family homes for rock-bottom prices -- could be coming to an end. According to the Clear Capital report....
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/31/after-8-years-the-real-estate-market-is-finally-looking-normal-again/
This rapid appreciation in prices has caused the inventory of homes on the market to shrink, as prospective sellers are wary of jumping into what looks like a buyers' market. This dynamic can be especially frustrating for first-time homebuyers who face the double threat of banks wary of lending to anybody but the most creditworthy and homeowners wary of selling while prices look to be on their way up.
But new data shows that the rapidly rising home prices we saw in 2013 are expected to slow considerably this year. Historically, home prices tend to appreciate only slightly faster than inflation, and there's reason to believe that the market will settle into this pattern once again.
Last week's Case-Shiller data measuring January home prices, for instance, showed a third straight month of slight declines in national home prices on a month-over-month basis. While the index still showed that prices rose by double digits compared to last year, the fact that home prices have stopped appreciating on a month-to-month basis signals that valuations will begin leveling off.
Furthermore, data released Monday from real estate valuation firm Clear Capital -- which is more up to date than the Case-Shiller figures -- shows that non-seasonally adjusted real estate prices remained flat nationally during the winter of 2014 and that prices even fell in some regions of the country like the Midwest. The Clear Capital figures aren't seasonally adjusted, so poor winter weather likely depressed activity in some parts of the country, but the data still suggests that the rapid price increases we saw in 2013 won't be a factor in 2014.
The Clear Capital data also indicates that one of the main stories of the real estate recovery -- cash-rich investors buying up single-family homes for rock-bottom prices -- could be coming to an end. According to the Clear Capital report....
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/31/after-8-years-the-real-estate-market-is-finally-looking-normal-again/
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