Real Estate In The News

Over these winter months, there have been better deals and less buyers to compete with, but that won’t last long.  We are expecting a week of highs in the 50′s in the Boise area and with these temperatures, spring is in the air and real estate will soon be ramping up again.

The following is a collection of articles taken from many different publications on the subject of Real Estate, both national and local.  I hope you find this material helpful in your home search endeavors.

HOUSING STILL AFFORDABLE – As the economy strengthens and the Federal Reserve tapers its buy-back of mortgage-backed securities, there will be upward pressure on mortgage rates, but not enough to harm housing affordability, according to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac.  Nationally, Nothaft expects that home sales and prices will each rise about 5 percent in 2014, and that housing starts will post a 20 percent gain.  ”As we move into the 2014 home buying season, it will be a market dominated by home buying originations rather than refinance originations,” says Nothaft. “This will be the first time since 2000 that purchase originations will dominate the market.”

RECOMMENDATION ON HOMEBUILDING STOCKS – Housing starts (the number of new homes being built) in the U.S. are still at ultra-low levels. Homebuilders simply haven’t done their job of constructing new dwellings over the past few years to keep up with population growth.  And now, we have a supply-demand imbalance in housing.  In short, the U.S. needs more houses… and homebuilders are going to be the ones to build them, driving housing starts and homebuilder stock prices much higher!

INTEREST RATES – National average on a 30 year fixed rate loan for February 24, 2014 is 4.49%.  A 15 year fixed rate loan is at 3.52%.

NAHB FORECAST FOR 2014: (National Association of Home Builders)

• 1.15 million total housing starts in 2014, up 24.5 percent from 2013’s 928,000 units.
•  Single-family production projected to rise 32 percent to 822,000 units and surge an additional 41 percent to 1.16 million units in 2015.
• 333,000 multifamily starts, up 9 percent from 306,000 in 2013.
• Single-family home sales are projected to hit 584,000 this year, a 35.9 percent increase above last year’s 430,000 sales.
• Residential remodeling activity is expected to register a modest gain this year over 2013.
• A slow and steady housing recovery will bring nationwide housing starts to 71 percent of normal by fourth quarter 2014 and 93 percent of normal by the end of 2015, says Crowe.
• On a state level, the top 20 percent of states will be back to normal production levels by the end of 2015.

BOISE AREA MARKET STATS FROM JANUARY – January started the year off on a positive note in Ada County.  There was a 9% increase in sales over last January at a 12% higher average price of $233,306.  Distressed property sales decreased to 12% of the total compared to 25% last January, showing that the market is continuing to get healthier.   Inventory dropped slightly during the month but is still 21% higher at the end of this January than it was a year ago.  New construction accounted for 25% of all sales in January, but with new home prices 33% higher than resale homes, new homes are beginning to sit on the market. There is now a 2.2 month supply of resale homes, compared to a 5.5 month supply of newly built homes.

Ready to get out there and find a home? Lets go!  We are looking forward to serving your real estate purchasing needs…