Housing Inventory at 30 year high
With all the rosy real estate propaganda being thrown around these days, one might take it with a grain of salt, a closer look behind the numbers is warranted...
U.S. Housing starts hit a 21 year high in January. That means more inventory of new unsold homes....add that to the existing unsold inventory, which is at a 30 year high...
Haseeb Ahmed, a senior economist at Economy.com, notes that the inventory of new homes for sale has risen to 418,000, the highest level since the 1970s. At current sales rates, that is 4.5 months of supply, which is considered relatively low. But a spike in interest rates could send that ratio higher “very quickly,” he said.
As for listings of existing homes in Orange County and Las Vegas:
First Team Realty in Orange County says 5,840 homes were listed on Jan. 31, down 56 percent since late August. That's in line with what's been seen by Gary Watts, a real-estate broker and economist in Mission Viejo. He estimates that real-estate agents listed 5,847 homes on Feb. 1. While that's down 49 percent from Sept. 1, it's still up 154 percent from 2,301 a year ago.
Las Vegas inventory of unsold homes went from 1400 in January 2004 to 14,000 in January 2005, thats not a typo, up tenfold. Statistics as of November had indicated a rise to 16,000, price reductions reduced that number.
See: US Housing Starts at 21 year high - Bloomberg
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=afJFZKLf2RbY&refer=home
See: Prices retreat for New Homes in Vegas - Las Vegas Review Journal
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-24-Wed-2004/business/25333630.html
U.S. Housing starts hit a 21 year high in January. That means more inventory of new unsold homes....add that to the existing unsold inventory, which is at a 30 year high...
Haseeb Ahmed, a senior economist at Economy.com, notes that the inventory of new homes for sale has risen to 418,000, the highest level since the 1970s. At current sales rates, that is 4.5 months of supply, which is considered relatively low. But a spike in interest rates could send that ratio higher “very quickly,” he said.
As for listings of existing homes in Orange County and Las Vegas:
First Team Realty in Orange County says 5,840 homes were listed on Jan. 31, down 56 percent since late August. That's in line with what's been seen by Gary Watts, a real-estate broker and economist in Mission Viejo. He estimates that real-estate agents listed 5,847 homes on Feb. 1. While that's down 49 percent from Sept. 1, it's still up 154 percent from 2,301 a year ago.
Las Vegas inventory of unsold homes went from 1400 in January 2004 to 14,000 in January 2005, thats not a typo, up tenfold. Statistics as of November had indicated a rise to 16,000, price reductions reduced that number.
See: US Housing Starts at 21 year high - Bloomberg
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=afJFZKLf2RbY&refer=home
See: Prices retreat for New Homes in Vegas - Las Vegas Review Journal
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-24-Wed-2004/business/25333630.html
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