February 2012

Today the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a report showing that although December, 2011 had a higher number of new homes sales than January 2012, new home sales in January 2012 were still above last year’s average.

In January 2012, twenty-two thousand new homes were sold at prices 0.9 percent less than in December 2011 and 3.5 percent greater than in January 2011. Spikes in housing prices in 2011 can be attributed to the homebuyer tax credit being in effect.

David Crowe, the chief economist of NAHB believes the slow, steady recovery of the housing market coincides with economic and job growth. Builders will likely not be out of work this year, since increased new home sales has resulted in record low

In areas such as Palm Beach, housing prices, new home permitting, and employment are on the rise. As a result, South Florida is now considered one of the most improved areas in terms of showing economic recovery. Out of 98 markets nationally showing improvement, 7 of those markets were in South Florida.

While this is good news, some economists and real estate analysts are more reserved, saying that improvements to the South Florida housing market will be slow as the economy continues to become more stabilized.

[Palm Beach Post].

This March, US home prices are expected to reach the bottom of the market.

Recent studies are predicting that both the CoreLogic Index and the Case-Shiller Index will valley in March. However, because the data these indices use is from several months prior, the March prediction actually corresponds to current conditions.

These predictions are based on the price-to-rent ratio as well as the real price of homes, or home prices after being adjusted for inflation. After balllooning in the mid-2000s, both these factors have now returned to normal historical levels. As well, with listing inventory on the decline and with policies created to ease the pressure from distressed sales, the price free-fall will stop.

Although this is good news, according to