Bellevue Real Estate, Mortgage, and Economy 9/12/11
Posted on 12 September 2011
Here is the Bellevue Real Estate Report for September 12, 2011:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK…”The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.”–John Burroughs, American naturalist and essayist
INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE…The great opportunity now is for home buyers to get a mortgage at an historically low rate. Freddie Mac reported national average mortgage rates set new record lows last week. But according to most observers, buyers shouldn’t expect further rate dips. Lenders are seeing plenty of loan volume, so they don’t have to lower pricing to get more activity.
Opportunity was also one of the themes in Fannie Mae’s August National Housing Survey, where 69% of Americans polled say now is a good time to buy a home. And in spite of all the talk about more price declines, people expect home prices to dip only 0.5% in the next year. This is why some observers feel we’re at a price bottom now. A strong 46% of Americans expect rents to go up in the next year, so that should motivate purchases as well.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT…In four days of stock trading, the Dow drifted down for the sixth week out of the last seven, all because of financial dramas on the European continent. Europe’s Central Bank President failed to offer any plan to stimulate growth following the downward revision to his GDP forecast for the region. Friday there was talk that Greece might default on its debt over the weekend. On our shores, news that weekly initial jobless claims are still above 400,000 didn’t help matters either.
Even a couple of surprisingly good U.S. economic reports couldn’t overcome all these bad vibes. The August ISM Services Index was UP, to a better-than-expected 53.3, showing expansion in the non-manufacturing sector responsible for about 85% of our jobs. Following this, it was reported that the July Trade Deficit shrank, thanks to a $6.2 billion INCREASE in exports, which are UP 15.1% in the last year, ahead of imports, up 13.6%.
For the week, the Dow ended down 2.2%, at 10992; the S&P 500 was down 1.7%, to 1154; and the Nasdaq was down 0.5%, at 2468.
Bellevue Real Estate Report
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