3/29/2011

"US single family home prices fell for the seventh month in a row in January"

Housing prices continue to collapse in the US. This isn't too optimistic: "Keeping with the trends set in late 2010, January brings us weakening home prices with no real hope in sight for the near future." Again, DC is the one area where housing prices rose.

[the S&P/Case-Shiller index of prices] monitors 20 metropolitan areas and found that seasonally adjusted prices had fallen in 12 of them.
In four cities, prices were at their lowest for 11 years, with the overall index down 0.2% between December and January.
The average annual price fall across the 20 cities was 3.1%.
Only Washington DC registered a meaningful rise in prices, gaining 3.6% over the year, while San Diego was flat at 0.1% above January's price a year ago. . . .


Note that in Canada there is a housing boom.

As much of the U.S. housing market limps along, home prices north of the border are on a fresh tear, fired up in part by a borrowing binge that has sent Canadians' debt to record levels—and now higher than their notoriously profligate U.S. neighbors—while income growth pokes along.
House prices have risen to almost 5.5 times disposable income per worker, well above the long-term historical average of 3.5, he says.
"We've been through a fairly hefty housing boom over the last 10 years, and the next three years is going to be an unwinding of that," Mr. Madani says.
To be sure, most economists here say Canada isn't facing an American-style housing bubble, and they cite a host of reasons such as tighter lending, a buoyant economy and a robust labor market. Gross domestic product grew at a surprisingly strong 3.3% annual pace in the fourth quarter. Canada also has gained back all of the jobs it lost during the recession. . . .

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