Archive for the ‘housing’ Category
Real Estate Sales Continue to Fall
Housing prices continued their descent - both housing resales and overall prices declined in January. None of this is unexpected - especially as the stimulus plan, which contains a number of tax provisions directed at homeowners, was at that point still a plan, and not a law.
Here are the raw numbers: home resales were [...]
More than a stimulus
The stimulus bill wasn’t quite enough. There had been criticism that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act didn’t address the heart of the current crisis - falling housing prices. Now we know why: yesterday President Obama unveiled a $275 billion plan dedicated to this very cause.
Currently, one in ten houses are in some stage of [...]
Renter’s New Leverage
In the same way a rising tide lifts all boats, a sinking one brings down those around it. With housing prices continuing to fall, renters suddenly have more leverage:
Early in the housing crisis, former homeowners were starting to rent again, supporting demand for rentals. Now, with more newly constructed condos being converted into rental units, landlords [...]
Homeownership Subsidies
[Via Marginal Revolution]
An interesting post by Eric Posner about the subsidies we see in homeownership in this country, and the subsequent distortions it causes in the housing markets:
Home ownership has some attractive features—you needn’t fight with your landlord, or worry that he will terminate the lease—but it is basically an enormous financial gamble that many people, [...]
New York, NY: Increasing Odds of Serendipity
As I’ve mentioned before, I live in New York City. Having grown up in small towns in the South, I never would have imagined I would enjoy living in America’s largest city as much as I do. Now I simply can’t imagine living anywhere else - I feel everyday I head to work that I [...]
Housing Price Decline
Hardly news, I know, but housing prices continue to decline:
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index, a closely watched gauge, fell 2.2% in October from September and 18% from a year earlier, the sharpest declines in the data’s two-decade history. The index has fallen 23.4% since its mid-2006 peak, pushing prices back down to March 2004 [...]
