Housing market is off to the races-in Seattle anyway

Bidding Wars Erupt as U.S. Supply of Homes for Sale Falls
This is a REAL story title on Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/bidding-wars-erupt-as-u-s-suppl...

This link is for that story and is especially for my new best friend (who would stab me in the back in an instant) 'Clowns on Acid'. Mr Clown thinks housing will never recover and he chides me about it on every post I make even when I don't write about housing so Mr Clown this is for you and you mega-intellect. By the way why not put something out there beside a snide comment?

I guess it is my personal mission in life (yes, Mr Phelps, so long as I choose to accept...and I realize that everyone will disavow any knowledge of my role in this tawdry mission) to see that Bozo-bell does not run afoul of the latest in housing trends.

He is so prone to believing that last years new's was brought down from the mount carved on stone tablets by Moses and appears incapable of dealing with change. Ah pessimists repent!

Housing is rising from the dead, rolling back the great stone and revealing its true healthier self to you AND IT ISN'T EVEN EASTER YET!

Just in Case-Shiller
The Case-Shiller home price index posted another house price drop, as we expected it to this time of year (-3.8% in January 2012 compared to -4.1% in December 2011). This series is not seasonally adjusted. But the yr/yr decline was cut again. This is another house price series where the second derivative is improving, Mr Clownster. And, YES falling prices are 'good news' if they are falling by less and not falling by much. And such is the case here (the Sase-Shiller in fact).

The link to the Bloomberg story (should you choose to follow- your mission impossible) tells of housing scarcity in Seattle and bidding wars on homes put up for sale.

The bidding is probably best in Seattle if the home for sale has an anti-war sign on the front lawn if I know Seattle (and I do).

The point is not NOT NOT that the whole housing market has turned on a dime so fast that the Earth's crust is going to shift over its hot mantle and make the North and South poles reverse AIII CARUMBA!!! But that there are pockets of real improvement in this economy, in this housing market at this time.

The MACRO data may not be the best way to track housing since all housing, even more than politics, is local. There are still tons of problems but not everyone has a credit dilemma, or an underwater mortgage. Still I DO NOT -DO NOT- look for a surge in mortgage applications.

I hear that some people think that if the economy strengthens and rates start to rise there will be a SURGE in mortgage activity.

WEll, HEAR THIS: THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.

Banks still want a credit rating that is so high that there will not be eligible borrowers enough to crowd the doors of this theater even if you call out 'fire!' at the top of your lungs.

So be content with various pockets in the housing market improving. Las Vegas and Florida are staying under a heavy burden of oversupply and foreclosure. With trouble in the Midwest because of a hollowed out industrial sector, we still have a country that can have pockets of recovery and enough of it to bring the market as a whole into recovery, save those regions so afflicted that recovery will wait for more structural changes to take root... or demolition (Detroit?).

Play the song, "The times they are a structurally a changin'"

So there it is, another comment on housing. and, dang if it isn't positive.

And now I look for a You-Know-What-storm of negative commentaries by people who continue to drive their cars by looking though the rear view mirror and whose favorite words encompass four-letters.

Sorry boys and girls,

facts is facts.

Now it's time for Mr Clowns on Acid and his three ring circus of naysayers

here's...clowny!

Look for the commentary but don't expect much insight.  It would be good to hear any positive stories people could chuck in between the snarkiness.

Best,

Bob

Comments

[12ToothAssassin]

The heckler has won when you respond.

[Oracle of Kypseli]

If you buy and stay in for 15 years, you should be okay, except the inflexibility.

Everyone else is taking a chance buying now. And when interest rates go higher, all your equity goes out of the window.

Don't be a sucker. Stay away.