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Pending home sales declined in January from a strong upturn in December due to unusual weather patterns. The Pending Home Sales Index, a leading indicator for the housing sector based on contracts signed in January, fell 4.1 percent to an index of 108.7 from an upwardly revised reading of 112.3 in December. This was 8.9 percent lower than January 2006. Aside from December, which got a lift from mild weather, the January index was the highest since last August. Read more>
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Unusual weather patterns and problems in the subprime lending marketplace are creating challenges in assessing housing market conditions, but a recovery is likely this year, according to NAR's latest forecast. Extraordinary weather variations are skewing home sales and clouding the picture, according to NAR's Chief Economist David Lereah. "Underlying trends point to a housing recovery in 2007, but it will take a couple months for us to get a better handle on it. Existing-home sales are expected to slowly improve from what appears to be the cyclical low last fall, but we think there will be some additional pain in the new-home market, which hopefully will start to rise later in the year." Read more>
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Provide valuable market insights from the trenches by participating in NAR's monthly Real Estate Practitioners Survey(REPS). We'll send you an e-mail once a month with five brief questions about your market expectations. We'll also include a link to results of the latest survey. Send an e-mail to Wannasiri Chompoopet to: Participate.>
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Baby boomers are true believers in real estate, don't plan to retire as early as their parents and want professional service from their real estate agents when they buy and sell a home. These are some of the findings from NAR's report: Baby Boomers and Real Estate Today and Tomorrow. The single most important service a real estate agent can provide for boomer buyers is representing their interests in the transaction. For boomer sellers, it's help in establishing the right asking price. Get the full report>
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Office, hospitality and industrial sectors of the real estate market are continuing to draw investors, keeping commercial property transaction volume high and prospects for 2007 bright, according to NAR's latest Commercial Real Estate Outlook. Somewhat higher vacancy rates do not appear to be holding commercial markets down. And, then there's New York City, with an office vacancy rate of just 6.6 percent -- half the national average. Oh to be an investor there! Take a look at the first-quarter report which provides overviews of the five major commercial property categories: Office, industrial, retail, multi-family and hospitality. Read more>
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Tell us how you use NAR Research to make a pitch, seal a deal or beat out the competition. We're looking for testimonials on how real live business people make NAR Research relevant to them. And, if you have suggestions about how we could do things better, let us know that, too. Send your testimonials, comments, suggestions and -- well, if you must -- criticisms to: ljohnson@realtors.org.
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Report compiled by NAR's Research Division.
Questions about this report? Contact Research at ljohnson@realtors.org. |
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