Housing market receives a reprieve as home values marginally increase

United States of America real estate doesn’t get a lot of good news these days. However, there is a scant glimmer of hope amid the doom and gloom. Believe it or not, the costs of homes are rising. They are for the last few months. There was a rise in prices over June 2010, and home prices are monitored by the Case Shiller Price Index. It is great to hear even just a little great news about real estate, thinking about what market conditions have been. Source of article – Housing market gets a reprieve as home prices slightly improve by Personal Money Store.

Minor climb in house rates

Real estate activity is tracked by lots of different organizations. Nevertheless, Standard and Poor’s Case Shiller price index is one of the best authorities for the cost of homes across 20 cities. Home prices increased by 4.4 percent, according to the New York Times, over second quarter of 2010. Last quarter, prices had a 2.8 percent drop. Also, home prices for second quarter of 2010 are 3.6 percent higher than for second quarter of 2009. For July, home prices rose 1 percent over June.

That is not the whole picture however

There is a hitch, of course. Home prices may have risen, but sales are down. The homebuyer tax credit helped to spur home sales, but once the credit expired sales started to drop off. Home prices are likely to fall soon, as well. Economist Karl Case (for whom the index is named) said that when some of the data was optimistic, a stabilization of financial markets had not occurred yet, according to Bloomberg. Case thinks it could be an additional year or so before a more stable market emerges, and begins to grow again.

It could possibly be a whole lot worse

The homebuyer tax credit was only a finger within the dam. It provided an artificial and only momentary boost to home sales and home values. True activity in real estate cannot resume until there isn’t really anything keeping activity up or down. There is some consolation in that things are better than last year.

Find more information on this subject

Bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-31/karl-case-sees-a-lot-of-positive-stuff-in-housing-price-data-tom-keene.html

NY Times

nytimes.com/2010/09/01/business/economy/01econ.html?partner=rss and emc=rss