We all knew housing would sputter after the expiration of the federal home buyers’ tax credit. Of course, we also all hoped that the economy would be on steadier footing by then, and would itself provide some stability to the housing market. Well, unemployment is coming down—it’s now at 9.5%, compared to 10% in December—but that’s still pretty elevated, especially once you take into account people who are working fewer hours than they’d like to. So now the question is: Are we headed for a double dip in housing as a result?
Here’s one positive bit of news from the housing front: fewer houses are seeing their prices slashed by owners desperate to sell. In Trulia.com’s latest analysis of homes listed for sale, only 21% came up as having been previously listed at a higher price. A month ago, 22% of houses were listed at a reduced [...]
That was one of the themes of Ben Bernanke’s speech to the American Economic Association yesterday. And this is the nifty chart he used to make his case:
One positive byproduct of this real estate/financial crisis has been the elevation of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices to the status of standard measure of housing prices and the relegation of the National Association of Realtors’ average and median sales price numbers to sideshow. This is mostly a good thing, because the NAR numbers are [...]
