Real Estate News & Views

Hello, Taberna Neighbors!

What’s Happening with real estate markets around the nation and other places? The following are a few updates as of the first week of October:

A West Chester, PA-based firm says, nationwide, the median sales price for an existing home will decline in 2007 by only 3.6 percent, but that would be the first full-year decline in home prices since the 1930s' Great Depression era.

Other reports have already revealed those unsustainable double-digit home price increases of the last half decade have begun to crumble and when the smoke clears, many home prices on the coast will be cold toast, says Economy.com.

“The highest probability of price declines is in metro areas throughout California, and in and around New York City. Probabilities are nearly as high in the rest of the Northeast Corridor, many Florida metro areas, and in sundry areas in the Midwest and Mountain West," according to the report's summary.

Declines are less likely or expected to be much less severe in Texas, most of the Southeast, the Farm Belt and the Pacific Northwest.

The greatest annual decline will visit sunny Cape Coral, FL, where home prices are forecast to decline 18.6 percent from the peak price. Other large home price declines will come from Reno, NV (17.2 percent); Merced, CA (16.1 percent); Stockton, CA (15.7 percent); Sarasota, FL (14 percent); Naples, FL (13.8 percent); Tucson, AZ (13.4 percent); Las Vegas, NV (12.9 percent); Chico, CA (12.6 percent) and Fresno, CA (12.5 percent), with another 11 metros suffering double-digit, home price declines.

Of the seven states in the nation with housing that saw a more than 80 percent rate of appreciation over the 2001-2005 period, Rhode Island, which enjoyed a 94 percent rate during the period, is the last hold out. The remaining markets have experienced rapid appreciation deceleration, according to the second quarter Home Price Index by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

In Canada, the mantra appears to be “I’d rather be renovating.” The time it takes to renovate a home, the inconvenience involved, and the cost of the work are all cited as 'headaches' in a recent survey of Canadian homeowners. Even so, 80 per cent of Canadians would rather renovate than move to a different house.

The New Bern area of eastern NC is experiencing much more activity this autumn, while the coastal beach areas are seeing a very slow season.