Latest House Sales/Price Trends [Housing Tracker]

Seeking Alpha's Housing Tracker is a collection of housing-related excerpts from various sources, grouped by topic. Feel free to post any interesting links on the subject in the comments section below.

Quote of the Day

“This feels like 1987. It’s not even close to ’73 or ’74, when people used to feel sorry for you if you told them you lived in New York City.” – Luxury real estate broker Barbara Corcoran, on the current stock market turmoil as compared to previous stocks market crises.. (NY Times, Oct. 4)

House Sales/Price Trends

California Officials Try to Avoid Second Housing Hit.  “Officials in San Bernardino and Riverside counties are determined to avoid a repeat of what happened 20 years ago, when the savings-and-loan crisis led to a massive selloff of distressed real estate in the area by the federal government's Resolution Trust Corp. Many of those properties… were sold at fire-sale prices to investors who unloaded them quickly and… turned [them] into largely rental communities, further depressing property values and delaying an economic rebound… [Local] government representatives [are] mustering support for a federal bill that would allow local businesses and governments to buy up some of the real estate.” (WSJ, Oct. 7)

Middle-Income Earners Priced Out Of Homes. “NY State Association of Realtors: The search for a modest house at an affordable price in Putnam County has been a challenge in a county where the median single-family home price is $418,000. Even though prices in Putnam have fallen in the past two years, the prices are still too high for some… First-time homebuyers in Rockland and Westchester are experiencing a similar challenge, even as home prices drop in both counties. In Westchester, where the median income for a family of two is $77,200, and in Rockland, where the median income is $67,852, families are struggling to find places they can afford.” (LoHud Journal, Oct. 7)

America's Fastest-Selling ZIP Codes. “[Some] neighborhoods are appreciating and selling well. That is, if you're willing to pay up. The median home sale price in most of these areas is more than $700,000, which puts them in the richest 1% of ZIP codes in the country. They include 10069, a part of New York's Upper West Side, 94111 in San Francisco, Cold Spring Harbor's 11724 and Fisher Island, Fla., ZIP 33109.” (Forbes, Oct. 7)

Survey Finds Expansion of Housing in the U.S.  “Census Bureau 2007 American Housing Survey: The number of houses, apartments and mobile homes in the nation rose by almost four million from 2005-2007, to 128.2 million... Renters occupied 32% and owners 68%... The vast majority, 80 million, were detached single-family homes. The data does not account for the full impact of plummeting prices since the subprime and credit crises struck… Median home value over all rose about 16% to $191,471, from $165,344 in 2005... The number of houses and apartments valued at over $300,000 soared more than 20% since 2005. The 2007 survey found more than four million occupied homes valued at $750,000 and up and another 92,000 for sale at those prices.” (NY Times, Oct. 6)

End of an Era on Wall Street: Goodbye to All That  Connecticut: “Once a hamlet for the moneyed old guard, Greenwich has found itself in recent years overrun by flashy hedge fund and private equity managers. But with the markets in flux, some high-end homes with price tags as high as $3M-$8 million that sat unsold for six months or longer are now being offered as rentals, said Barbara Wells, a local Realtor… Some of the new homes offered for rent were houses built on spec. Luxury realtor Barbara Corcoran: In all likelihood, the real estate market could be frozen for the next 6-18 months or so as buyers and sellers struggle to reach agreement on prices.” (NY Times, Oct. 4)

Buffett’s Homeservices Plans $200M Expansion. “If cash is king, then you can courier that crown and scepter over to the Minneapolis headquarters of HomeServices of America Inc.The nation’s second-largest real estate brokerage plans to spend $200 million over the next couple of years paying 20 to 25 cents on the dollar for distressed brokerages around the country. That capital, which will triple the company’s market presence, comes from…Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A).” (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Oct. 3)

Manhattan Apartment Sales Drop as Prices Extend Five-Year Gain. “New York City's residential real estate market is somewhat protected by financing rules set by co-op boards, which often require 20% down payments for even the smallest apartments, plus a cash cushion before they approve would-be buyers… The number of apartments for sale at the end of the quarter rose 35% and was about 23% higher than the average over the last five years, appraiser Miller Samuel said.” (Bloomberg, Oct. 3)

Banking & Finance: Wamu's Buyer Vows To Build On Apartment Unit's Success.  “Largely overlooked in coverage of JPMorgan’s colossal takeover of WaMu is a treasure buried inside WaMu’s troubled real estate loan portfolio — apartments. WaMu had grown in recent years to become the national leader in financing small apartment projects: WaMu’s $33 billion small-balance apartment mortgage portfolio was performing exponentially better than its single-family portfolio... “They have a nice multifamily lending unit,” JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told reporters right after the Sept. 25 takeover. “We want to build that out.” (Puget Sound Business Journal, Oct. 3)

                                             

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