9.4% surge in existing home sales in the month of September! Isn’t it surprising? If you are the one who went through tough times during recession, then here’s good news for you. According to a recent report revealed by the National Association of Realtors the housing market has finally begun to stabilize.

Lower prices and the expiration of tax credit have lured many first time home buyers. Sales rose 32% during the third quarter from the same time last year, showing positive signs of a strengthening real estate market. Fueled by a soon to expire tax credit for first time buyers home sales rose sharply in Lane County last month.

Regional Multiple Listing Service reported a total of 297 home sales in September this year, compared to 241 in September 2008, indicating an increase of 23.2 percent. Pending sales were up by 38.4 percent during this period. The tax credit “is a significant influence in the consumer confidence arena,” said Lorena Teer, president of the Eugene Association of Realtors. She also said that, “The whole market right now is going to be driven by consumer confidence. With signs that the economy is beginning to recover from the recession, the local real estate market is getting back to normal”.

According to the Real estate industry officials both the increase in sales and the decrease in the median price is the result of first-time homebuyers getting into the market usually in the lower price range to take advantage of the federal tax credit. People are becoming hopeful that things are getting better and they have started to spend money on the things they need to live. This is a great signal that people are buying and gobbling up the deals on homes across the country.

National Association of Realtors reported that the existing home sales were up across the country. Though, the median price of an existing home has fallen by 8.5% compared to last year but the prices have stabilized from their free fall during recession. Thus, the housing market has finally begun to climb out of the rapid decline in property values.

This rebound in home sales is indeed a very positive sign. Well, this gives us a brief view about how the real estate market is recovering from recession. There are statistical signs of recovery even though it’s not a full blown recovery. Looking forward to a booming Real Estate Market………Aren’t you?

written by REI Circle (www.reicircle.com)

Apartment owners are going through one of the worst business years in the last two decades. The vacancy rate in US has reached to 7.8 percent and is at the highest level in 23 years.

Vacancy rate is continuously on rise after the recession. According to a recent report published by Reis Inc., a New York real-estate research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, the US apartment vacancy rate rose to 7.8 percent in the third quarter and is highest since 1986.

The primary factor behind this increase in the vacancy rate is job loss. People who have already lost their jobs or have fear of losing their job are very cautious for rentals and considering different options to minimize their spendthrift on property. Landlords are now offering less rent for their properties still the occupancy rate is not increasing.

The vacancy rate is expected to increase further in the coming months and can cross the 8 percent mark by perhaps next quarter. Victor Calanog, Reis director of research says, “It makes me wonder whether the avalanche is on its way for office and retail (real estate) unless things change really quickly and really drastically. Vacancy could be worse if landlords didn’t realize fairly early on that this end game was not going to end well and lowered rents really quickly”

The problem is further compounded with the increase in the number of new buildings and the number can reach up to 100, 000 units. With the sharp decline in the financial sector and job loss property rent can further go down and vacancy rate will not show any improvement in the coming months.

written by REI Circle (www.reicircle.com)

The real estate market has witnessed a sharp fall in house prices following the recession. The global financial crisis has resulted in a reduced number of property investments, severely affecting the real estate business. However things are getting sunnier in California, where the real estate prices have seen an increase over the last four months indicating a sign of revival for the real estate market.

Although much of the increase in house prices have been attributed to an overall decrease in sale of foreclosed properties, experts believe that the revival in Californian estate prices can be a positive sign for the US real estate market. Average house prices in California have been on the up for the third consecutive month and are showing no signs of dropping, bringing the smile back to real estate investors.

Figures indicate that the sale of houses in California has gone up by 35.2% in May from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 556,590. Prospective real estate buyers are already sensing this as an exciting time for buying properties, with most of them sensing that the market has already hit a bottom. Economists believe that the decision to buy could be a right one as real estate agencies are coming up with lucrative offers to get some houses off their list and increase revenues.

According to a report released by the California Association of Realtors, the average price for a California home has gone up by 4.2%. While prices have not reached close to what it was the previous year, the marginal increase is still quite significant considering the current economic situation, much of which is being directly linked to a reduction in the number of foreclosed houses in the market.

With California widely being considered as a barometer to measure the real estate market, economists sense that the upswing in its real estate is a positive sign for the US real estate market. House prices in the state sky-rocketed when the economy was thriving and the recent plummet has also seen massive foreclosures across the country thus triggering a nationwide recession. Any indication of improvement in the state of California is hence considered to be a positive sign for the rest of the US.

However the upswing could well be a temporary one. The state of California has recently seen a massive rise in unemployment with reports claiming the unemployment rate to have reached 11.5% in May which is well above the national unemployment rate of 9.4%. The higher unemployment rate could lead to even more foreclosures thus nullifying the upswing, because of increase in the number of foreclosed homes entering the real estate market.

Recession and rising unemployment are hammering California, the world’s eighth-largest economy, and have opened a historic $26.3 billion state budget gap. Economists are also wary of budget proposals that could have a harmful impact on the Californian real estate market. They believe that if plans to lay off a thousand state workers and cutting health and welfare programs for millions of Californians are approved in the budget, the real estate market would plummet again.

While some believe that it is too early to predict anything, it does seem that the real estate market is showing signs of recovery, and as the age old saying goes, California might be living up to its reputation of “Everything starts in California”.

witten by REI Circle (www.reicircle.com)