Home builders have greatly cut back on production in the past four years, resulting in historically low levels of new-home inventory. That will soon create a problem for the subset of consumers who insist on buying only new homes. More >
Archives for 2011
Second-home Market Holds Steady
The market share of vacation- and investment-home sales held steady in 2010, although the sales volume declined with the overall market. NAR’s™ 2011 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2010, shows vacation-home sales accounted for 10 percent of transactions last year while the portion of investment sales was 17 percent, both unchanged from 2009. “A sizeable number of buyers made deals with all-cash offerings,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
Home Sales Drop After Seeing Gains
Existing-home sales fell 9.6 percent in February percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million, from an upwardly revised 5.40 million in January, NAR says. The sales rate is 2.8 percent below this time last year. “Housing affordability conditions have been at record levels and the economy has been improving, but home sales are being constrained by the problems of unnecessarily tight credit and continuing appraisal problems,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says.
Commercial Stabilizing, But Rents to Stay Soft
A stabilization trend is taking place in commercial real estate sectors, but in most markets rent will remain soft except for multifamily rentals. “Very limited construction of new commercial real estate over the past few years has essentially fixed the supply of available space,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “This means vacancy rates could fall quickly from any increase in demand for commercial space.”
