A Four Minute Housing Summary

Yesterday, I was on Fox Business Network covering a host of topics. In this quick interview, we were able to discuss the following:

• Investors: They won’t sell while home prices are going up.
• Entry-level buyers: 30% of buyers are entry-level which is a typical number, but you would think the percentage would be higher given the recovery and the number of homeowners with no equity.
• Gen-Y Homeownership: We ballpark that they will achieve 5% lower due to high-debt.  More research is needed here.
• Normal Seasonal pickup: Let’s not make a headline out of seasonally adjusted annual existing home sales being down 0.6% month over month.
• California Inventory: Two (2) of our team members have received unsolicited offers on the California homes they live in
• California Growth: California’s housing market is hot, despite increasing reports from our clients in Texas and Nevada that they are seeing a surge of affluent Californians moving in to avoid the new 13.3% top tax rate.
• Southeast Lag: The Southeast is late to the recovery partially because investors believe that price appreciation will be less likely (note-our Consulting SVP in Atlanta, David Kalosis, reports that the markets in Atlanta and the Carolinas have improved dramatically this Spring).
• Fed Stimulus: How long will the Fed keep buying $45 billion per month in mortgage securities to keep rates down?
• Get in Now: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, monthly housing payments are near all-time lows and are trending up.
• Pent-up Demand: Consumers can now look in the rear view mirror and see that they should have bought 6 months ago. This should increase demand.