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Pending home sales are showing signs of leveling out, indicating that the housing market is stabilizing. The Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in February, slipped 0.8 percent to 117.7 and is 5.2 percent below February 2005. David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said most of the cooling in the housing market has already occurred, and a historically strong market can be expected moving forward. Read more.
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Existing-home rose in February following five months of decline. Total existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – increased 5.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.91 million units in February This was 0.3 percent below a year earlier. NAR analysts attributed some of the gain to mild weather. Read more.
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Home sales should generally level-out and remain at historically high levels, according to NAR forecasters. Economic growth and job creation are providing a favorable backdrop for the housing market, but rising interest rates have an offsetting effect, they said. Home sales will move up and down somewhat over the remainder of the year but still come up as the third strongest year on record. NAR expects the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to rise to 6.9 percent by December. Read more.
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Nearly 40 percent of all existing-home sales last year went to buyers of second homes. The annual report shows that 27.7 percent of all homes purchased in 2005 were for investment and another 12.2 percent were vacation homes. All together, the market share of second homes rose from 36.0 percent in 2004 to 39.9 percent in 2005. NAR Chief Economist David Lereah said the baby boom generation is driving second-home sales. Baby boomers are at the point in life when they want to diversify investments, they’re at the peak of their earnings and interest rates remain historically low, Lereah said. Read more.
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So, who are all those second-home owners, anyway? Find out in NAR’s 2006 Profile of Second-Home Owners, due to come out next month. Among the interesting factoids you'll learn are that the typical vacation home is 220 miles from the owner's primary residence and typical owners spent almost 40 nights in their vacation homes last year. Let's hope it didn't rain the entire time, Noah! Watch for it! Pre-order it!
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Get the scoop on NAR's commercial members. What is their business like? How do they make most of their income? How old are they? How many years have they been in the business? Find out all this and more in NAR's new 2006 Commercial Member Profile, which will be available in May. Watch for it!
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Baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) are turning 60 at a rate of about 8,000 per day! In this "Year of the Boomer" NAR commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a first-of-its-kind survey to look into baby boomers and the real estate market. Will they downsize? Will they buy or sell investment properties? Come hear Peter Francese, founder of American Demographics magazine, as he presents: "Housing and the Baby Boomer: An Insightful Perspective" on Thursday, May 18, 2-3:30 pm in Wilson Room BC of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. Read about this and other Midyear Meeting highlights at Realtor.org. Go now!
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Get the latest information about economic and business trends at these two popular forums during NAR’s Midyear Legislative Conference and Trade Expo. The Economic Issues and Residential Business Trends Forum on Thursday, May 18, 8:00 -10:00 am, in the Marriott Ballroom Salons 2-3 of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, will feature NAR Chief Economist, David Lereah, plus Carla Cross, a nationally known real estate educator and productivity expert. The Commercial Forum will take place on Thursday, May 18, 1:00-3:00 pm in the Ambassador Room of the Omni Shoreham Hotel, featuring Lereah, as well as Linda Goold, NAR's director of tax policy, and Edward Wlodarczyk, a veteran commercial broker. Read about these and other Midyear Meeting highlights at Realtor.org. Go now!
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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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