U.S. Existing-Home Sales Surged 24.7% in July

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

ECONOMY ECONOMIC DATA

U.S. Existing-Home Sales Surged 24.7% in July

Sales of previously owned homes hit highest rate since December 2006

By Nicole Friedman
Updated Aug. 21, 2020 10:31 am ET

Sales of previously owned homes surged in July as low interest rates and a desire for more space boosted home-buyer demand.

Existing-home sales rose 24.7% in July from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.86 million, the highest rate since December 2006, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. The July sales marked a 8.7% increase from a year earlier.

Economists...

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Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-existing-home-sales-rose-24-7-in-july-from-june-11598018897

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Paywall

https://twitter.com/nicolefriedman
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[bucolic_frolic]

1. This is COVID-escape weak-hands money

Once a vaccine is out, half of them will regret the commute or the neighbors and maintenance, and they'll be for sale again.

Real estate industry always grinds you down.

[FBaggins]

11. I'm not so sure

A bunch of jobs have moved remote and aren't coming back to the office. No commute to regret. Any such impact is likely to be more than offset by the people who no longer need to live anywhere near the city.

[MissB]

13. We may be moving

We are trying to decide whether to put our house up for sale.

We already have elbow room with nearly a half acre. We bought this house so our kids could go to the schools in this district (small school district where neighborhood boundary is district boundary).

But we are both remote and not going back to the office. I may return for monthly staff meetings but that is pretty much it. DH is shifting towards retirement.

So we are looking at a home in the foothills of the coast. 5 acre parcel with all the amenities we’d want (basically a large garden, greenhouse, shop, orchard, plenty of space for dog to run).

I don’t think we will regret it- we are just considering pulling the trigger on this about 5 years earlier than we’d planned.

We aren’t in a horrible position here- our house would sell for more than the other one and our mortgage is minimal. Risk to us is how long it would take to sell. Luckily there is zero inventory in our neighborhood in the price point we would sell at (everything else is more expensive).

Still, we are looking before we leap.

[ancianita]

2. This is pennies-on-the-dollar buyup of assets from people who haven't enough cash flow to survive.

Cash property buyers are out like packs of predators ready to strip Americans of their assets. They'll bundle properties into finance tranches on Wall St.and leverage yet another huge rake-in of trading, land sold off to foreign "investors."

Hmm, wonder which foreign countries want to own American assets.

[Laelth]

4. That was my first thought.

The real estate turnover is likely to get even more dramatic as evictions crank up in September and October.

-Laelth

[ancianita]

8. It could also just be "flipping," since real estate prices, surprisingly, are at their highest ever.

This news just doesn't tell the whole story, so we're left to speculate, as usual.

[IronLionZion]

3. I know a few who bought during this pandemic

many cities have lower occupancy in rental apartments since college students and seasonal workers would be gone. Some folks fled the city due to the pandemic and protests so some deals were found on urban condos with fewer buyers.

[Stallion]

5. It Probably Also involves Sellers Needing to Access Equity in their Property to Survive

[Cicada]

6. Reduced spending increases my bank accounts

Many people are spending less, no vacations, no restaurants, bars, concerts. No shopping in department stores. So I bet a lot of people have paid down credit cards and have more money in the bank. Tens of millions are getting hurt but millions are saving more. Maybe that is why home purchases are up.

[Cicada]

7. Reduced spending increases my bank accounts

Many people are spending less, no vacations, no restaurants, bars, concerts. No shopping in department stores. So I bet a lot of people have paid down credit cards and have more money in the bank. Tens of millions are getting hurt but millions are saving more. Maybe that is why home purchases are up.

[Bayard]

9. I'm seeing a lot of For Sale signs around here

Some of them right next to Trump signs.

Duh...

[Politicub]

10. House prices are higher than they have ever been in my neighborhood.

And I am baffled about how that is happening with so many unemployed.

I don’t live in a hot area by any means, and not too long ago, houses stayed on the market for more than 60 days. All the sudden, houses are being snapped up at the asking price or above days after they go on the market.

My neighbor’s house sold in three days. It was nothing special, but it set a new high watermark in price compared to other equivalent homes in the area.

I live in a close-in suburb of Atlanta in a neighborhood of houses that are 60 years or more old.

[MissB]

14. For our neighborhood

it’s the Californians that come up and scoop up houses for cash at outlandish prices.

[mitch96]

17. It's New Yorker and people from the North East that buy up the properties down here. Not all but

A great many. They come from high priced real estate so to them Fla is a bargain...
m

[MissB]

15. That's awesome!

Maybe you can give me a bit of your sellers luck?

[mahina]

18. Tired just reading it!

[eilen]

20. I have a friend who is retiring in October

She has a 3 BR, 1.5 bath suburban home built in the 1970s. Her real estate agent said it will sell within the week, for much more than my friend thought it would and there would be a bidding war. She has not done much to upgrade it--some painting, new tile work on the bathroom floor. She was going to get a new dishwasher but did not have a chance (current one does not work). She bought a new furnace last winter (no choice). I am happy for her. She plans to buy a condo close to her sisters neighborhood in N. Carolina. Her sister plans to sell her large family home in the next couple of years (kids in college) in favor of a condo so she is looking for the both of them really.

It is kind of crazy. We are just going slowly upgrading our home. We have a 5 year plan lol.