Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Rise Most in Four Years

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

By Jeanna Smialek Jun 30, 2014 10:36 AM ET

The number of contracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes jumped in May by the most in more than four years, a sign the residential-real estate market is rebounding after a slow start to the year.

The pending home sales index climbed 6.1 percent, the biggest advance since April 2010, after a revised 0.5 percent increase in April, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The gain exceeded the most optimistic estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, whose median forecast called for a 1.5 percent gain.

Housing demand is benefiting from cheaper borrowing costs, a stronger employment outlook and easier access to credit for some households. At the same time, higher prices and limited income gains are keeping the improvement in the residential real estate from becoming more broad-based.

“Housing is beginning to bounce back,” Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in Toronto, whose forecast for a 4 percent gain was the highest in the Bloomberg survey. “Mortgage rates have backed down a bit recently. Home prices are still rising, which means fewer people have mortgages that are under water. The longer the housing recovery goes on, the more people will gain confidence to join in.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-30/pending-sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-rise-by-most-in-four-years.html

[IronLionZion]

1. Sounds good, but they don't give much data on who is buying

like how many are investors vs regular people. And the tougher credit standards are I'm sure a big issue for those who were screwed in the housing crisis, so those folks might largely be blocked out.

I bet there was a lot of pent up demand over time as well.

More links with more info on this:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-30/pending-sales-of-u-dot-s-dot-existing-homes-rise-by-most-in-four-years

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pending-home-sales-rise-6-1-in-may-1404137053

[newthinking]

6. The housing market has been screwed up since they reduce capital gains which brought the investor

class in earnest. Before that homes were considered a long term investment which kept prices fairly stable.

[bradla]

2. What are you posting good news for.

This is not allowed on this board. Only negative news. The economy is crashing...we are all doomed.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Here's some!

More foreign investors are buying homes in the USA!

[newthinking]

7. The wealthy are indeed, over time, moving their money towards real estate in anticipation

of an eventual dollar collapse. The dollar is living on fumes. It has no real value, and in fact you can only give countries electronic bits in exchange for real goods for so long (which is what we are doing with countries like China).

In addition we have been massively pumping dollars to keep things going. The rich know this cannot last for ever so they are taking the markets for everything they can while the going is good. Then the smart investors are buying property throughout the world (Remember the Bushes purchase of vast lands in South America?) so that they will keep much of their wealth despite the collapse.

*That* is why we are preparing for mass riots with huge detention facilities recently built around the country. Because everyone understands that sooner or later the dollar will take a serious hit.

[dhill926]

10. where are these detention centers...

"*That* is why we are preparing for mass riots with huge detention facilities recently built around the country."

[IronLionZion]

8. Welcome to DU

You're learning fast! You'll fit right in.

[TBF]

4. What is happening behind the scenes -

Investors Who Bought Foreclosed Homes in Bulk Look to Sell
By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN
June 27, 2014 3:58 pm

A year ago, buying foreclosed homes to rent out was the sure-thing trade for investment firms backed by money from private equity companies, hedge funds and pension systems. But with the supply of cheap foreclosed homes dwindling, some early investors are looking to cash out a bit by flipping homes to competitors.

The Waypoint Real Estate Group, one of the first companies to raise money from private investors to buy foreclosed homes, is quietly shopping as many as 2,000 houses in California that it acquired in the last few years in several private investment funds, said three people who had been briefed on the matter but were not authorized to discuss it. The homes, which are largely rented, are being shown to other companies backed by investor money that have also scooped up distressed houses in states including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Nevada.

< snip >

The single-family home market, after a wave of acquisitions by companies backed by Wall Street money, is changing as institutional buyers now focus more on expanding their operations to manage tens of thousands of homes across the United States. Industry participants say that the rapid buying of foreclosed homes has ended and that they expect other early institutional buyers to sell homes to lock in profits. They say they also expect the business to consolidate into the hands of a few large companies ...

Much more here: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/investors-who-bought-foreclosed-homes-in-bulk-look-to-cash-in/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[newthinking]

5. Good sign? Or simply the raging "investment cycle"

What is happening in these cycles is a huge "bubble" of money jumps from investment to investment and at the end of the full cycle we see a Stock Market crash, and then a real estate crash. I don't know how badly the real estate will crash the next time (since it has not fully recovered), but because of the investment train, stock market drops are catastrophic. And the next one is likely to be pretty nasty also.

[mnhtnbb]

9. Huh! We have a house on the market--since February--

that has been showed to clients 29 times and NOT one offer.

Sigh. We will take a major bath on the house if we can find a buyer, since
our basis is > $100K over our list price at this time.

Three years ago we had one offer--$125K less than what we have in it from an investor--we rejected it.
Now we wish we'd taken it. Instead, we rented it for the last 3 years hoping the market
would improve in the meantime.