It has been a busy couple of days of positive news in the housing world, with signs that the market is indeed picking up!
Today, Tuesday, 3/24:, Rates were in the 4.5% range. Wells Fargo was offering a 30-year fixed conforming loan, with 20% down for 4.5% for people with a credit score over 720, according to a Virginia-based-loan officer. This rate has no origination fee and 1 point.
Tuesday, 3/24: U.S. homes prices rose 1.7% in January compared with December, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported.. It was the first monthly increase in a year. Prices rose 3.6% in the South Atlantic region, which includes the DC Metro area.
(Looking back a year, nationally, for the 12 months ending in January, U.S. prices fell 6.3%, and were down 8.3% over the last year in our region.)
Monday: 3/23: A report that existing home sales grew 5.1% in February against expectations for a 0.9% decline,, came from the National Association of Realtors. Sales of single-family homes rose 4.4% following a 4.7% decrease in January, while sales of condos and other multiple-family units climbed 11.4% against a 10.2% decrease the month prior.
Sunday, 3/22: Local Realtors reported an uptick in Open House traffic with more serious buyers and fewer browsers.
Monday, 3/23: The Washington Post real estate blog Local-Address reported that the chatter is up about people seriously looking to buy a home.
Thursday, 3/19: A local economist from GMU predicted that the local housing market – especially in Northern Virginia – is about to turn.
Wednesday, 3/18: The Fed announced it is buying an additional $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities, bringing the total to $1.25 trillion this year.
This year: With $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit, now is a great time to buy.
[...] shrinking. Nationally, inventory fell to 12.2 months of supply, down from 12.9 months. This caps a week of positive signs in the housing market where existing home sales have risen 5.1%, and interest rates have to dropped [...]
Good article. it is hard to tell the inventory, considering there are still a lot of short sales and foreclosures. I still think there are a lot of houses to hit the market, regular sales and those “horrible” shortsales.
Peggy: You have a good point. Some say the banks are holding back on putting some foreclosures on the market and there are still loans that have not reset. But our inventory here just keeps going down. I think the foreclosures are keeping prices down, but with sales up and inventory down, seems like will see more improvement as the trend continues.
[...] Clark Home sales are still on the rise in Northern Va., another sign that area housing market is starting to rebound. During the week ending March 21, the number of sales went up 34% more than the same week a year [...]
[...] are now 22.1 percent fewer homes for sale than there were at this time in 2008. This contributes to multiple other indications of the local market [...]