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April 9, 2010 – Are things about to change? Is the US housing market about to turn around? Are the foreclosure problems for millions of Americans almost at an end?

According to Yahoo Real Estate market conditions have not improved and have actually gotten worse in 2010. The total number of foreclosures in the US continued to rise in the first two months of 2010 after actually declining slightly last December.

The US foreclosure numbers for February 2010 continued to increase by more than 10% over just six months before. In the United States the number of monthly sales in February had declined a startling 50% as compared to August 09. The median sale price had also declined by more than 3% across the country.

One would have to conclude that there are still many bargains available for Americans in a position to take advantage of many very good deals. This also goes for homebuyers from Canada (where real estate markets are booming) and the Canadian dollar has recently increased in value making US bargains seriously worth considering.

For my customers and contacts in the My City area, if you are interested in learning more about taking advantage of opportunities contact me. I work closely with agents across the US, and can offer you professional assistance at no charge to you.

Source: Yahoo Real Estate

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• 1.2 million households lost to recession (msnbc.msn.com)
• New round of foreclosures threatens housing market (americablog.com)

blogeasy :: Apr.11.2010 :: real estate trends :: No Comments »

In this part of the world we have grown so accustomed to hearing reports of the rapid expansion of the Chinese economy that we would be surprised if it should suddenly come to an end.

One perspective on this growth we seldom hear much about is the significant increase in Chinese real estate values. In some parts of Shanghai real estate prices in upscale areas have jumped by more than 50 percent in the last year.

According to a current story in Speaking of Real Estate, “The Great Bubble of China”, the meltdown in the US a few of years ago is not likely to repeat itself China any time soon.

For one thing most of the price increases are taking place in upscale areas, as the Chinese high roller class is getting larger and buying to impress.

It is equally important that lending practices in China are quite different those that held sway in the US back in 2007 and 2008. Subprime loans do not exist in China, and equally important the down payment requirements are much higher: 30 percent for primary residences, buyers of second homes need 40 percent down, and 50 percent for raw land.

So things in China are a lot different and much less likely to collapse. With down payments that high the effect is to reduce speculation and not a lot of property flipping happening, simply because there are a lot fewer speculators able to afford the entry fee.

Nevertheless we have reason to watch the Chinese economy closely, since the economic stability of the world is now very much dependent on a stable Chinese economy. If there were a significant slump in the Chinese real estate market it would have a dampening effect on the chinese economy as a whole. And almost everyone would be impacted by that.

blogeasy :: Mar.15.2010 :: real estate trends :: 3 Comments »

Try answering this question: How many text messages did you send today?

If you answered somewhere between zero and none chances are you’re over 30. And if you’re somewhere between 30 and 65 you probably sent and received quite a few emails.

Now consider your kids (or grandkids) who are between 10 and 24. For them it was probably the reverse. Likely no emails at all, but too many text messages to count. Today’s young kids use their cell phones for text messaging and occasionally for actually making phone calls, but almost never to send clunky old email messages.

In this blog post called The Next Generation of Real Estate Customers the author discusses how communication technology is changing. It is not unusual for kids to send 100 or more text messages a day. Eventually professionals like real estate agents will have to change in order to communicate with a younger generation of customers – not to mention their own children.

The incredible fact is that many older professionals have barely figured out how to run a computer. Ten and eleven year olds, on the other hand have moved well beyond that to smartphones, bluetooth, wifi, Wii, facebook and twitter. Indeed, things change so quickly some of yesterday’s hot trends are already old hat.

blogeasy :: Mar.15.2010 :: real estate trends :: No Comments »

OTTAWA, Ontario – The Bank of Canada announced on March 2, 2010 that it’s overnight lending rate would remain at 0.25 percent. This was in spite of better than expected economic activity in the country over the last few months.

Previously the BofC had predicted annual growth in 2009 of 3.3 percent and inflation of 1.6 percent. But the actual numbers were more like 5 percent growth as of the end of December 09 and 2 percent inflation.

The Bank restated its commitment to keep interest rates on hold until the second half of 2010. The general feeling is that the better-than-expected growth in 2009 was skewed by “exceptional monetary and fiscal stimulus, as well as extraordinary measures taken to support financial systems.”

In other words, growth has been propped up by massive government stimulus programs. In Canada these programs will begin to phase out this spring, and growth is expected to slow considerably. So the pledge to keep interest rates low is an attempt to ease the economy through the transition period.

Some observers outside the BofC think it is unlikely the Bank will be able to keep rates at the current level for that long. Gregory Klump, Chief Economist for the Canadian Real Estate Association predicts that “interest rates will rise, but increases will be small and spread out over time.”

So from the perspective of 0 home buyers, the next few months are probably the best time to buy they are likely to see for some time. Current mortgage rates for conventional mortgages stood at 5.39 percent as of March 2, 2010, which is down 0.4 percent from a year earlier.

blogeasy :: Mar.11.2010 :: real estate trends :: No Comments »