US Property News - Home Price growth continues…

[US Property Guru]

If you cannot see email, click here
[http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=252&F=T with my friends
[mailto:link%20TBA]March 2014 Summary If we had all been blessed with
great foresight we would have been investing in U.S. property in late 2012
when prices were at their lowest. However although home prices have been on
the up through 2013 they are still way south of the peak price days and
there are still great deals to be had.

 Investors will still hold the whip hand over traditional homebuyers
simply because price and loan interest rates are making it more difficult
for family home purchasing against a backdrop of slow wage rises. With the
increases in home prices and increased loan interest rates we have looked
again at the buy or rent argument and find no financial case to rent
albeit there may be many other reasons why that is a lifestyle choice.
With the influx of property investors came the concern of what happens
when they depart.

 It seems from recent evidence that it is unlikely that we will witness a
mass exodus anytime soon and in fact more investors are likely to be
entering the market and remain in for the long haul. As we know there are
any number of industry reports and home price indices available to provide
guidance, however in many cases that simply causes increased confusion. The
array of approaches and methodologies are bound to produce different
outcomes so we probably need to be content with trends across the range
rather than clinging to the numbers produced which do vary widely.



Analysts agree on continuing home price growthWe have previously argued in
this blog that with the plethora of home price reports available and the
numerous methodology approaches adopted the outcomes are bound to be very
different across the range. We therefore concluded that no single report
necessarily reflects the actual state of play and that the value is not
actually in the figures but in the trend line. However there is also worth
in appreciating the reasons that different approaches have been adopted.

 Zillow, the real estate research company, remains highly critical of the
methodology adopted by the industry leading Case-Shiller.        read more
[http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=253&F=T]

Buying remains 38% cheaper than rentingWith the significant rise in home
prices through 2013 and loan interest rate hikes we return to the question
of whether renting or buying is a better financial bet. And even if buying
might be the right financial option now, at what point do interest rate
increases reverse that position?.         read more
[http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=254&F=T Price reports
create confusion As we know 2013 reflected the best year of home price
gains since 2005 however there are mixed views on whether that particular
party is now over. Last month the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report
was suggesting that the strongest part of the recovery was over and that
  read more [http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=255&F=T
investors view the long haulThe results from a recently conducted survey,
and feedback from an industry real estate summit, indicate the notion that
property investors would depart in droves in 2014 appears to be a myth.
According to Morgan Stanley not only are the majority likely to stay in,
    read more [http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=256&F=T]
  [http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=121&F=T]
 Traditional homebuyers facing uphill battleAlthough average home prices
across the nation are still well below the peak the typical homebuyer is
still being priced out of the market in many major cities and coastal
areas. In hindsight we now know that the most affordable time to purchase
was toward the end of 2012 before the recovery kicked in.    read more
[http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=257&F=T me from this
list [http://whitedesign.biz/link.php?M=463870&N=138&L=5&F=T]
Click this link to unsubscribe:
http://whitedesign.biz/unsubscribe.php?M=463870&C=895e321c969a7f5d31a6b0ff387a5099&L=4&N=138
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://oss.sgi.com/pipermail/xfs/attachments/20140322/42f1127b/attachment.html>