Home prices post highest jump in nearly 7 years

Inman News reports that home prices rose more on an annual basis in February than they have in nearly seven years. Inman, a news service that focuses on real estate, cites a report released Wednesday by real estate analytics firm CoreLogic that showed overal home prices, including distressed sales (short sales and sales of bank-owned homes), jumped 10.2 percent on an annual basis in February, "marking the biggest year-over-year increase since March 2006." Home prices also rose for the 12th straight month in February, increasing 0.5 percent from January, according to the report.

"This month's annual price increase put home values at a level that is 26.3 percent below their peak before the housing meltdown," according to CoreLogic. "In the depths of the real estate slump, home prices plummeted by more than 30 percent from the pinnacle they reached during the boom, according to some home price indexes."

As always, please contact me, Mynor Herrera, for expert advice on everything real estate. I am licensed in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. And I specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.  

Mortgage rates inch up in response to good economic data

Mortgage rates have begun to inch up as a result of continued signs of a strengthening economic recovery. Jeff Clabaugh of the Washington Business Journal reports:

Freddie Mac says a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.63 percent in the week ending March 14, up from 3.52 percent last week. A 15-year fix averaged 2.79 percent, up from 2.76 percent. A one-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 2.64 percent from an average 2.63 percent last week. "Fixed mortgage rates rose this week on signs of job growth and consumer spending," said Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) Chief Economist Frank Nothaft.

Kathy Orton, The Washington Post's real estate blogger, notes Nothaft gave last week's strong job growth report and consumer spending for the rise in the rates. “The economy added 236,000 new workers in February, which helped push down the unemployment rate to 7.7 percent,” Nothaft said in a statement. “This helped offset the effects of the payroll tax holiday expiration and led to a 1.1 percent increase in retail sales, which was well above the market consensus forecast.”

If you would like to discuss, call me, Mynor Herrera, for expert advice on everything real estate. I am licensed in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and I specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.

Housing to save the recovery from the sequester?

Here's a dose of optimism: "The sequester will not derail the recovery..." according Nigel Gault, chief US economist for IHS Global Insight. He adds that it does likely slow it down some, however, especially here in the Washington, D.C., region. "The private-sector news on the economy continues to be good, and we would be upgrading our forecast of 2013 growth slightly were it not for the federal spending sequester that began on March 1."

And experts are pointing to the rebound in residential housing as what's fueling the growing confidence in the recovery. "Lights are burning longer in real estate offices. New housing construction sites are popping up across the country," writes Laurent Belsie, staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor. That activity helps in two ways, Belsie adds:

More home building translates directly into more jobs for construction workers and more sales of everything from lumber to electrical supplies and pickup trucks. Indirectly, rising housing prices mean that people feel richer because their homes are worth more. And if they think the rise is permanent, they begin to spend more.

The latest job numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that economy added 236,000 jobs in February, the second best report in the past year. As Belsie points out, that means we've regained two-thirds of the jobs lost in the Great Recession. "One of the biggest gainers was construction, which added 48,000 jobs, the biggest jump in nearly six years." And along those lines, The Motley Fool's Matt DiLallo quotes Warren Buffett, the so-called Sage of Omaha, "We will come back big time on employment when residential construction comes back. You will be surprised, in my view, how fast employment changes when that happens."

Now, if the politicians would only reach a deal to end the sequester we'd really be cooking with gas.
 
Call me, Mynor Herrera, for expert advice on everything real estate. I am licensed in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and I specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the subdivisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda and Whitehall Condominium.