Bellevue Real Estate, Mortgage, and Economy July 11, 2011
Posted on 11 July 2011
Here is the Bellevue Real Estate Report for July 11, 2011:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK…”Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”–Robert Louis Stevenson
INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE…It finally appears seeds are being planted for a housing recovery. Fannie Mae’s monthly survey reported that Americans expect home prices to drop just 0.5% in the next year. Some reported this as a negative because a 0.7% price gain was expected last month. But other analysts see this as a bottom, and those surveyed agree, as the majority (69%) believe it’s a good time to buy a home.
A MacroMarkets LLC study echoed this. More than 50% of the economists, real estate experts and investment strategists polled said they expect a bottom for national home prices this year. Almost two thirds of the respondents felt our residential real estate market is at an historic turning point.
The Wall Street Journal also reported this could be a good time to buy. The reasons? Mortgage rates are near 50-year lows; inventories are supporting a buyer’s market; and homes are more affordable than they’ve been in years. Moody’s calculates the ratio of home prices to income is now 20.9% lower than the 15-year average up through 2010.
Finally, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported demand for purchase loans was UP 4.8% from the week before and UP 11.7% from a year ago.
JOBS DOWN, MARKETS UP…The bulls charged as stocks gained for the first three days of the holiday-shortened week. Then Friday morning the June Employment Report showed jobs down on every front. The markets dipped for the day, but ended up for the week. The downer? A piddling 18,000 nonfarm payrolls were added last month and April and May payrolls were revised lower, while the unemployment rate went to 9.2%. The economy certainly hit a “soft patch” in Q2. For the week, the Dow ended UP 0.6%, to 12657; the S&P 500 was UP 0.3%, to 1344; and the Nasdaq was UP 1.6%, to 2860.
There was, however, positive labor news. New unemployment claims fell 14,000 for the week and continuing claims were down 43,000 to 3.681 million, the second lowest level in the recovery. Retailers delivered some solid same-store sales reports, so consumers are indeed spending. The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index declined for the month, but is still above 50, so the service sector continues to expand.
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