United States of America real estate doesn’t get a lot of very good news these days. However, there is a scant glimmer of hope amid the doom and gloom. The last few consecutive months, home prices have really risen. The Case Shiller Price Index has been showing slight upward trending of home prices, and a gain was recorded across 20 cities for homes sold between May and June 2010. Some good news is appreciated, as real estate is one of one of the most depressed markets in the United States at the moment.
Home prices rise ever so slightly
Real estate activity is tracked by lots of different organizations. Nevertheless, Standard and Poor’s Case Shiller price index is one of the best authorities for the cost of homes across 20 cities. According to the New York Times, the second quarter posted a 4.4 percent gain in home prices. The first quarter of this fiscal year saw a fall in home prices of 2.8 percent. The increase is also for the whole year. Second quarter 2010 home prices are up 3.6 percent compared to second quarter of 2009. Since June, the prices were still going moving upward. Granted, it was only by 1 percent.
That isn’t really the entire image however
There is a hitch, of course. Home prices may have risen, but sales are lower. The homebuyer tax credit helped to spur home sales, however once the credit expired sales started to drop off. Home prices are likely to fall soon, also. Economist Karl Case (for whom the index is named) said that when some of the data was good, a stabilization of financial markets had not occurred yet, as outlined by Bloomberg. Case thinks that the market hasn’t stabilized totally yet. He predicts at least another year before the real estate market levels out.
The news isn’t totally terrible
The bottom line is that the homebuyer tax credit gave a momentary, which is to say artificial, boost to house sales, and also the cost of homes. True activity in real estate cannot resume until there isn’t anything keeping activity up or down. That said, there is some consolation. Things are better than last year.
Find more info on this subject
Bloomberg
bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-31/karl-case-sees-a-lot-of-positive-stuff-in-housing-price-data-tom-keene.html
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/01/business/economy/01econ.html?partner=rss and emc=rss
