Ben Bernanke Assesses the Housing Market

Ben Bernanke Assesses the Housing Market

On February 10, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed the 2012 National Association of Homebuilders International Builders' Show in Orlando, Florida. His topic was the national housing market, including an analysis of where it stands and where it's going:

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One way to understand conditions in the housing market is to focus on the balance of supply and demand. For the past few years, the actual and potential supply of single-family homes has greatly exceeded the effective demand. The elevated number of homes that are currently vacant instead of owner occupied reflects the imbalance. According to the most recent estimate, about 1-3/4 million homes are currently unoccupied and for sale. While this figure has declined slightly during the past few years, it is nonetheless up dramatically from the first half of the 2000s, when readings of about 1-1/4 million vacant homes were the norm. Of course, housing conditions vary by region, and vacancy rates in some locations are substantially higher than the national average....

Moreover, a very large number of additional homes are poised to come on the owner-occupied market. In each of the past few years, roughly 2 million homes have entered the foreclosure process, and many of these homes have been put up for sale, crowding out much of the need for new building. Looking ahead, the relatively high rate of foreclosures is likely to continue for a while, putting additional homes on the market and dislocating families and disrupting communities in the process.

At the same time, a number of factors are constraining demand. Household formation has been down, particularly among young adults. High unemployment and uncertain job prospects may have reduced the willingness of some households to commit to homeownership. Availability of mortgage credit is an important constraint, to which I will return later. Additionally, housing may no longer be viewed as the secure investment it once was thought to be, given uncertainty about future home prices and the economy more generally.
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To see a transcript of his remarks, in their entirety, go to:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20110210a.htm

Fiserv Case-Shiller expects Nashville housing prices to rise in the summer. - http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2012/01/30/report-home-prices-projected-to-rise.html?ed=2012-01-30&s=article_du&ana=e_du_pub

Manier and Exton updated their studies of the Middle Tennessee real estate market to include a 2011 year end analysis. Reports provide detailed information by neighborhood on change in prices, sales rates and inventories. Included is a detailed analysis of high priced homes. A new report looks at change in value based on price per square foot. See http://exton.biz/

Nashville-area office tenants signed on for more than 730,000 square feet of extra space in 2011, according to the fourth-quarter report by brokerage Cassidy Turley. That number — with the lion's share being split by the Central Business District, Brentwood and Cool Springs — was down a bit from 2010 but enough to push the region's vacancy rate to its lowest point in three years. (See the graph below.)
Cassidy Turley's prediction: Look for rents to rise in 2012, albeit rather slowly, and for developers to break ground on a number of projects.
There are some noteworthy positives on the industrial side of things as well:
• Companies absorbed more than 3.9 million square feet of space, the most since 2006. "This comes off the heels of a bleak 2009 and 2010, when the market took a nosedive and posted a combined total of negative 6.5 million SF."
• The upward leasing trend should continue in 2012, driven in part by the resurgent automotive sector. The Cassidy Turley pros say asking rents and landlord concessions should begin to stabilize — warehouse rents are down almost 8 percent since mid-year while vacancy rates haven't budged.



http://nashvillepost.com/blogs/postbusiness/2012/1/3/regions_real_estate_markets_carrying_momentum_in_12

New mortgage limit may hurt home sales | The Tennessean | tennessean.com

New mortgage limit may hurt home sales The Tennessean tennessean.com

“Any loan amount over that cap is going to mean a higher cost to borrowers,” real estate appraiser Richard Exton said. “We still have quite an inventory of homes in that $550,000 to $750,000 range, so making it harder to buy those homes is not going to be a good thing.”

Manier and Exton Updates Studies with 2010 Year End Data

Manier and Exton has updated their studies of MLS data for Nashville and Middle Tennessee and includes year end 2010 data. Studies include Annual Price Change, Inventory Levels, Days on Market, as well as Sales Rates and Inventories for High Priced Homes.

Visit www.exton.biz for complete information.

Nashville area home foreclosures continue to rise | Nashville Business Journal

Nashville area home foreclosures continue to rise Nashville Business Journal

Home foreclosure rates in the Nashville area increased in October compared to one year prior, according to data released today by CoreLogic.

According to the data, 1.58 percent of outstanding mortgages were in foreclosure in October, an increase of 0.33 percentage points over October 2009. It marks the fourth consecutive month in which the local foreclosure rate has increased.Read more: Nashville area home foreclosures continue to rise Nashville Business Journal