The National Association of Home Builders just released its latest numbers on the housing market. The overall index slumped to 13 from 14, compared with expectations for a slight increase. That’s the worst level going all the way back to March 2009.
A recent announcement by the HUD secretary has just thrown another spanner in the mix as far as investing in US real estate goes. Already, far too much interference by the US Government Inc has skewed and in many cases destroyed the independent nature of the real estate market. Once one takes into consideration the fact that US banks own 22 million residential properties, and HUD foreclosures are mostly sat rotting, the introduction of $65 million seems like a drop in the bucket, and we suspect that most of this will vanish into a few select pockets in any case. Regardless, this is the announcement:
A recent New York Times article describes how the economic downturn and the foreclosure crisis are creating a new kind of real estate entrepreneur.
A flood of absentee buyers are now looking to purchase foreclosed and REO properties at rock bottom prices and then offer them up to the former homeowners as rentals before the original occupants ever leave.
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How would you like to live in a palatial estate with no housing or utility costs and nothing much to do except care for a dog and deal with occasional emergencies if and when they arise?
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Cities all across the midwestern U.S. are grappling with too many foreclosures. Many cities are witnessing the kind of urban blight in which entire blocks are swallowed by vandalized vacant properties, squatters, and meth labs. In some very large cities like Cleveland, entire neighborhoods are rapidly falling into decay.
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It looks as though even the ruling family of Dubai is not immune to the stunning amount of lawsuits and court cases flying around the property investment world at the moment. An Iranian businessman is suing members of Dubai’s ruling family for close to two billion dollars over real estate investments, in a case which opened on Wednesday.
Numis Securities, a City investment bank, expects amateur buy-to-let landlords to begin “panic selling,” their investment properties as house values continue to decline in the UK, causing the average home value to fall below £100,000. Their recent report stated:
More on British Property Prices could fall another 55 percent
THE STATE OF THE GREEK PROPERTY MARKET
As the economic crisis deepens and intensifies, the first tentative figures showing the current state of the Greek property market are beginning to surface. A slowdown was always expected, so the question concerned only the degree. The 2008 Q4 figures show that the world economic crisis had some impact, but the figures are certainly not disastrous. Overall, property prices are holding steady, although the inherent difficulties of the Greek market make any investment advice tentative.
Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning New York Times op-ed columnist and Professor of Economic and International Affairs at Princeton University, said in today’s column that in regard to the housing slump and the general economic downturn in the U.S., “…the seeds of eventual recovery are already being planted.”
The current economic downturn is starting to hit some segments of the luxury real estate market. Park Avenue Co-Ops and Condos in New York City are down 20-25% from the summer of 2008, and some of the priciest suburbs across the country are suffering even more.
