housing economics

Bureau of Labor Statistics’ year-end data shows that the cost of living in a home, or housing inflation, fell both regionally and nationally last year. Housing inflation, which accounts for 46% of the Consumer Price Index math, includes home-operating costs from rent to energy to furnishings to insurance, but not purchase costs.
In SoCal, […]

What the Fed was thinking when it cut the Fed Funds rate by a half percent to 3% on Jan. 30, according to the meeting minutes …
a relatively low real federal funds rate now appeared appropriate for a time to counter the factors that were restraining economic growth, including the slide in housing activity and […]

Here’s what investment advisor Clyde Kendzierski from Orange wrote in his 70% Solution newsletter …
It will be several years before the current housing surplus is absorbed. Although nominal home prices will eventually bottom, inflation is likely to outpace home prices for decades to come. The idea that a home is your best long term investment […]

More news today points to a softer local rental market. The January Consumer Price Index report for LA-OC-Riverside showed the cost of renting a residence increasing at a 5.9% annual pace after hitting 6% or more for four months.That was also an improvement for renters over January 2007, when rents spiked 6.2% over the previous […]

The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo Bank just published a regional housing affordability index that ranks O.C. as the nation’s fifth least affordable housing market, with just 8.4% of the O.C. homes sold in the fourth quarter “affordable” to a buyer with a median local income. (Assumptions? Buyers spends 28% of […]

New federal counts of big layoffs in the fourth quarter at real estate-related businesses were 45% of all such U.S. dismissals vs. 34% in the third quarter and 39% a year ago.
My analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows bosses in construction, real estate sales and leasing, financing (mainly mortgages) and furniture manufacturing had […]

The California Association of Realtors reported today that 28% of Orange County residents could afford to buy an entry-level home here last fall — assuming that they could find a jumbo loan to finance it.
That affordability rate increased from 24% in the same quarter a year before and was the highest in Orange County since […]

D.R. Horton’s second, one-day home sale is Saturday at 23 projects from Chino to Bakersfield to Imperial County. Nothing in O.C., though. The company says its “UnAuction” …
Unlike any sale homebuyers have ever seen, D.R. Horton’s UnAuction presents dramatic sale prices and unbeatable new home value without the auction hassle. … all homes will be […]

Analysis of DataQuick’s January housing report shows the county’s beach-close communities continue to suffer the least from the current housing slump. That advantage, though, is shrinking. And the trend doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing by the ocean.
DataQuick identified 228 homes selling in beach cities’ ZIP codes last month, a 36% drop from a year ago. Among […]

More evidence why home contractors return phone calls these days … Building permit figures from the Construction Industry Research Board shows the estimated value of residential “additions and alterations” fell 17.6 percent in 2007, dropping to the lowest level since 2002. Permits valued at $444 million were issued in 2007 vs. $540 million in 2006 […]