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Close Topic OptionsReal Estate Boom Over?
Real Estate Boom Over - Politics, Business, Civil, History - Posted: 13th Feb, 2006 - 10:16pm
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Real Estate Boom Over?
Because of low interest rates in the U.S., real estate loans -- mostly people refinancing their homes -- have been in very high demand since the end of 2000. Now it looks like that trend is beginning to slack off...
Mortgage Requests Fall Near 18-Month Low
Wednesday December 10, 11:27 AM EST
By Richard Leong
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans filed fewer requests for new mortgages last week, bringing the weekly volume to its lowest level in nearly a year-and-a-half even as mortgage rates fell, a U.S. industry group said on Wednesday......Since mortgage rates have begun rising off their lows in June, applications for home loans have fallen by more than 60 percent since peaking in May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Mortgage Requests Fall....
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Over Boom Estate Real
Some excerpts from that same article.
| QUOTE |
| "New loan requests to refinance and to buy a home fell last week with the group also saying its weekly mortgage refinancing index posted an 18-month low. In the meantime, home sales have remained on track for a record year, but the blistering pace has cooled a bit since the end of summer. Meyer, whose own business has not experienced a drop in mortgage applications, expects home sales to stay robust into early 2004 due to strong demand and relative tight supply. " |
So, I don't think the real estate boom is over. Just the refinance boom. And even that is only over unless the rates begin to drop again.
The spring and summer are traditionally the best times for selling a house and it is normal for it to slack off in the fall and especially the winter. I do think the rate of refinance was bound to drop. After all, how low can interest rates go? There is a bottom which it can't go past. However, house prices have no top which cannot be exceeded. For example, my neighbor bought his house (identical to mine, but he has a garage and I don't) for $13,000 in 1960 or 1961. My house was valued by an appraiser for refinance this past April at $270,000. I doubt anyone in 1961 could have imagined such a thing.
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Real Estate Boom Over? History & Civil Business Politics
| QUOTE |
| I don't think the real estate boom is over. Just the refinance boom. And even that is only over unless the rates begin to drop again. |
This could be true... I know around here, houses are still being built all over the place. A local farmer recently sold 40 acres of land (that he bought in the 1980's for about $250,000) for $1.5 million to a developer who will build a new tract of homes, and all over in the eastern part of the valley there are many many new homes.
I don't like crowded places... I'm going to have to move again 
Roz
I don't like crowded places...
Roz
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Over Boom Estate Real
This is from an article by Mark Hulbert from CBS Market Watch that I subscribe to. Perhaps the downward trend is beginning.
| QUOTE |
| ...One of the biggest sources of concern about the housing market is that "new-home construction [is] hitting record highs, while new home sales have already dropped close to 20-month lows." According to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Commerce, this divergence between supply and demand has widened even further. In January, the inventory-to-sales ratio for new homes increased to 4.7 months -- its highest level since mid-2000. The increasing supply of new home sales is just one straw in the wind, of course. But on any of a number of fronts, Stack finds disturbing parallels between investors' attitudes today toward real estate with their attitudes toward Internet stocks prior to their bubble bursting in March 2000. |
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Post Date: 13th Feb, 2006 - 10:16pm / Post ID: #
NOTE: News [?]
Over Boom Estate Real
White House Sees Slow Fall for Home Sales
The high-flying housing market should make a safe landing by gradually losing altitude, the White House suggested Monday. Housing has been an important source of power for the economy as home sales hit record highs in the past five years running. Low mortgage rates were a factor behind brisk housing activity.
Ref. https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060213/ap_on_...wh/bush_economy
TOPIC: Real Estate Boom Over?