Seller's market returns as homes for sale drop in some areas
http://usat.ly/JvJMoI
Update: See also NY Times
This Blog is designed to provide information about buying or renting apartments in Brisbane, Australia. www.brisbane-apartment.com
http://usat.ly/JvJMoI
Update: See also NY Times
For real estate, some economists say, an end to the seemingly endless decline in housing values might be in sight.
Not immediately. At the moment, prices are still dropping. In 20 large cities, prices fell 0.8 percent in March from the previous month, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index released Tuesday. That pushed the closely watched index below its level of two years ago to a new post-bubble low, and put it 33.1 percent under its July 2006 peak.
Few analysts expect housing prices to rebound anytime soon. But quite a few are predicting that the market is close to the moment when things will stop getting worse, which will be a major improvement all by itself.
“By far the bulk of the downturn of housing prices is beyond us,” said Paul Dales of Capital Economics. He expects the market to slip 5 percent further, slightly more than he was expecting a few months ago.
“There are some amazingly favorable signs. Housing is the most undervalued it’s been in 35 years,” Mr. Dales said. “At some point, it’s going to do very well.”
Sales of studios and one-bedrooms rebounded first after the market crashed in late 2008, followed by three-bedrooms, but it wasn’t until mid-2010 that the two-bedroom market started its comeback. Now, brokers say that the demand for smaller apartments has ebbed and that two-bedroom apartments are all the rage, especially those priced at the lower end of the market.
Alan Nickman, an executive vice president of Bellmarc Realty, says that more buyers have recently come to him looking for apartments between $750,000 and $1.2 million. “That’s basically your starter two-bedrooms,” Mr. Nickman said, adding that the pool of potential buyers included “first-time buyers who are going straight into a two-bedroom,” bypassing smaller units.
Indexes of the two markets showed this week that the latest declines had almost wiped out the mild gains the two markets had shown after prices appeared to have hit bottom.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices ended February 3.3 percent below where it was a year earlier, and just 0.5 percent above the low reached in May 2009. The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index was reported to be down 4.9 percent over the last 12 months, but still 0.8 percent above its low, reached last August. ..."
When the recession hit, buyers fled the market and prices fell across the board. After things stabilized in late 2009, the market share for two-bedrooms had dropped from a typical 40 percent to as low as 25 percent, because more people had found that they could afford three-bedrooms, which took sales away from two-bedrooms.
Now, after a lull that has lasted for more than a year, two-bedrooms are back.
"After several days in foreclosure alley, this broad swath of the Central Valley that has been rated by some economists as the most stressed region during the Great Recession, I can’t see such apocalyptic forecasts coming true. Yes, huge developments are empty, with rising crime at the edges, and thousands of homes owned by banks that can’t unload them even at fire-sale prices. But through it all, the country churns and expands, unlike most other Western democracies. That great American natural resource — tomorrow — will have to save the suburban slums."
"It was April 2006, a moment when the perpetual rise of real estate was considered practically a law of physics. Mr. Koellmann was 23, a management consultant new to Miami. Financially cautious by nature, he bought a small, plain one-bedroom apartment for $215,000, much less than his agent told him he could afford. He put down 20 percent and received a fixed-rate loan from Countrywide Financial.
Not quite four years later, apartments in the building are selling in foreclosure for $90,000.
“There is no financial sense in staying,” Mr. Koellmann said. With the $1,500 he is paying each month for his mortgage, taxes and insurance, he could rent a nicer place on the beach, one with a gym, security and valet parking."
Source: NYTimes
By JULIE EARLE-LEVINE
ONCE just a stopover for tourists en route to either the Great Barrier Reef or the beaches on the Sunshine and Gold Coasts, the eastern Australian city of Brisbane has emerged as an alluring destination in its own right.
....WHERE TO STAY
The Emporium Hotel (61-73-253-6999; 1000 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, www.emporiumhotel.com.au) has doubles from 295 Australian dollars.
The recently opened Saville South Bank hotel (61-73-305-2500, 161 Grey Street, South Bank; www.savillehotelgroup.com) is a short walk to the Queensland Performing Arts Complex, the State Art Gallery and museums. Studio apartments with kitchenettes from 398 Australian dollars.