2007 Real Estate Forecast

Have We Hit the Bottom of the Housing Market? Anecdotal Evidence Says Maybe

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Two pieces of anecdotal evidence says that we well may have. First, our good friends at Business Week dedicated their edition to the perils and pitfalls of the housing market. Even Dean Foust, the erstwhile reporter who has been [...]

8Aug2007 | Tom Royce | 7 comments | Continued

News Today is Morbid, Are We Close To The Bottom?

Waking up this morning trying to determine the stories I will write about is a bear. Seriously, everyone is talking about the bear real estate market in the media.
Even Time Magazine is getting into the act. When that behemoth wakes up to a story you know that it is in full form. When Time finally noticed [...]

27Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Massachusetts Home Sales Slump at Mid Year Mark

Home sales in Massachusetts were down 8.3 percent for the month of June as the housing market failed to rebound in the important spring selling season. Prices for the homes that sold were down about 4.6 percent as the inventory of homes for sale to buyers is much higher than the norm.
Of course, Massachusetts real [...]

24Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Pulte Homes Estimated 2nd Quarter Charges - 740 to 770 Million

Pulte Homes is taking an airline worthy quantity of charges for the second quarter, an estimated 740 million to 770 million dollars worth of impairment and land related charges. These types of charges to the balance sheet scream that they are preparing to conduct fire sales of their present inventory to get it off the books. [...]

18Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Are Property Values Overvalued? This Analysis Shows Property Values Holding Steady

I got an email this morning pointing me over to a very unique think piece by Captain Capitalism. Instead of taking the standard view of real estate that it is skyrocketing for no reason and the market is one of leaps and spurts, the good Captain looks at it through the prism of our Gross [...]

14Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Home Depot Takes Hit Blaming 2007 Housing Slowdown

The Home Depot forecast their 2007 year and it is looking ugly. The company expects earnings to drop 15 to 18 percent and blames it squarely on the housing slowdown.
Their CFO Carol Tome is not expecting a quick turnaround. She is forecasting the housing slowdown to continue into 2008 and announced a stock buyback [...]

10Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

Dollar Drops on Subprime Mortgage Fallout Concerns

The subprime mortgage market continues to hurt the dollar. Concern in growing that governmental actions to stabilize the marketplace as Standard and Poor’s mentioned that they may cut 12 billion of subprime debt. Adding to the concern is that over leveraged hedge funds may face a liquidity crisis in the near future.

Treasurys rallied Tuesday as [...]

10Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Top 10 Lowest Office Vacancy Rates - 2nd Quarter, 2007

A new study by CB Richard Ellis shows that the lowest office vacancy rate in the country is Downtown Charlotte which has only 3.1 percent available. It looks like the NASCAR Corporate Offices that we talked about this morning that are being built in Charlotte will be a great investment on many levels.
Second and Third [...]

9Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

May Pending Home Sales Slip 3.5 Percent - Lowest Level Since September 2001

In data just released by the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales in the United States have dropped to their lowest level since 9/11. These numbers coming at the end of the spring selling season are rough for real estate agents and sellers alike as inventory is bound to increase and pressure to lower [...]

3Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Top 10 Least Affordable Housing Markets in 2007

If you are looking to stretch your housing dollars, these are cities that you might as well pass on. The housing markets with the least affordable housing prices tend to have a large stratification between the poor, middle class, and rich. Housing costs are obvioulsly high with the median earner only making 12 percent of [...]

3Jul2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued