This week in Lodi - Real Estate related news summaries 7/24 - 7/30/10
July 24 - Lodi News-Sentinel - Ralph Lea and Christi Kennedy recap a vintage playback highlighting the impact of the City decision to take over operations of water and electricity. Included in the story were other news events from July 1910.
July 27 - Washington, AP - "Home sales take a dive" and economists propose that prices will likely go lower. Standard and Poor's Case-Shiller index forecasts average loss in home prices to be nearly 2% this year. Moody's analysts are predicting 10% drops in Phoenix, Miami and Las Vegas - areas already suffering with over 50% declines in values. Some experts expect a rise in prices for the next few months because of the tax credit increases in demand.
July 28 - Washington Marketwatch - "Strength in homes prices not expected to continue" following strong sales in the spring; analysts doubt that the gains are sustainable.
July 21 - Stockton Record - letter to editor by Gene Beley - the writer (a 70-something retiree) expresses concern that the county refuses to lower property tax on their home. With fixed social security income and interest from savings, Mr. Beley notes that it takes two months' social security just to pay the taxes. He further observes that many seniors are considering that it may be more economical for them to rent, rather than own or buy.
July 29 - Los Angeles, AP - "Foreclosures increase in the first half of year" details the 154 out of 206 metropolitan areas with at least 200,000 residents showing an annual increase in foreclosure activity. According to RealtyTrac, Inc. about 1.7 million homeowners received a foreclosure-related notice from January through June. "That translates to one in 78 U>S> homes."
July 30 - New York, AP - "Mortgage rates hit another low" publishes Freddie Mac rate for 30-year fixed average at 4.54 for the week. This is the fifth time in 6 weeks that the mortgage company reported a record setting low rate.
So, it looks like we are still in for a bumpy ride - and our clients and customers will be looking to us once again to make sense of the market.
Jack: Nice synopsis of what's going on in the news. I don't think I'd be diciplined enough to put that together on a regular basis. Cheers!
Matt - I keep current news articles in my office in sheet protectors from the daily news. It helps me in 2 ways: one, I stay current on what my clients are seeing and two, it always gives me something to talk about. The recap I try and do as a word document every couple of days, then cut and paste into the blog. Side benefit: when I have folks who are confused about what's going on in the market, I can go back to my blogs and show them what's happening in the last few weeks.