On That Strong Buyer Demand Thing…

First, watch the video above. It’s my doppelganger Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at NAR, explaining the 1.4% drop in June pending home sales. This comes on the heels of bad news about June released several days ago: June Existing Home Sales down 5.4% June New Home Sales down 8.4% And predictably, the media and various … Read more

Be Wary of the False Spring in Real Estate

Real estate people are some of the most optimistic people I know. They have to be in order to work a business in which they don’t make a penny without a transaction getting done, and the driving motivation for the consumer is a dream: The American Dream, the Dream of Homeownership, Your Dream Home. Real … Read more

Cash Buyers, Inflation, and Real Estate

The recent news out of California, that cash buyers have set a record in home purchases, is the kind of news that makes me go Hmmmm. I wrote about it on AOL briefly, but wanted to dive into a bit more detail here. First, the news from the LA Times (h/t: Calculated Risk): All-cash buyers grabbed … Read more

Something Wicked, This Way Comes: Housing Market Signals

Ah, Spring… a time when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love… and respected real estate market analysts voice cautious optimism… For example, here’s Lawrence Yun of NAR voicing cautious optimism: Yun expects a slightly stronger demand for housing and a fairly even level of foreclosures entering the inventory pipeline before easing … Read more