Tim Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Barack Obama, is walking through a drama all to familiar to all to many ordinary Americans these days.
Geithner took a job out of state (Washington D.C.) and has been unable to sell his five bedroom, NY suburban home ever since, even after dropping the asking price to less than what he paid for it.
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.
More on Entrepreneurs in High-Foreclosure Areas Turn Homeowners Into Tenants
These are a few recent headlines and predictions about when the real estate market will bottom out. Of course, there are a select few who have been calling the bottom for some time now. Oddly enough, these tend to be real estate agents and newspaper columns. Speaking of newspaper columns, we are sad to see the end of “Raising the Roof,” the erstwhile International Herald Tribune and more recently, New York Times’ very own property blog. Kevin Brass will continue to write the print edition property column for the NYT, but the online version is no more. Honestly – this was one of the few international newspaper property blogs worth reading, and I don’t think I ever once saw a “We have reached bottom, Buy Now!” headline – which may be why it has gone the way of all things? Newspaper advertising is drying up faster than the 120% mortgages did.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price index released data for the first quarter of 2009 this week showing that overall home prices in the U.S. fell by an average of 19.1%, the largest drop in a single quarter in the 21-year history of the index itself.
If you’ve always dreamed of owning oceanfront property in Long Island’s posh community known as ‘The Hamptons’, the good news is, prices are down up to 40% from their 2007 peak.
Just as it appeared that new construction starts for personal residences were beginning to stabilize in the U.S. (as evidenced by very small increases In March and April as opposed to severe decreases in the 12 months before that), commercial real estate starts plunged in both months, taking new housing construction for April to an historic low.
Bloomberg, The Times and all the other major newspapers are apparently shocked thta there was a drop in US housing starts in April. According to Bloomberg yesterday:
U.S. stocks declined as banks fell after Moody’s Investors Service said commercial property values plunged and Home Depot Inc. retreated following an unexpected slump in housing starts.
And the Times ran with a similar lead in, which is entertaining because in March they reported “an unexpected rise in new home sales,” which apparently heralded “the first tentative signs of economic “green shoots.”
More on Unexpected drop in US housing starts says Bloomberg and The Times
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?
More on As High End Properties Languish, Need for Caretakers Grows
If you get the sense that the entire North American continent is still in the midst of a real estate meltdown, that’s not surprising, given the news coverage of the catastrophic events of the past year and a half, but actually, a few U.S. cities have weathered the storm pretty well.
More on One Industry Towns Among Few to Show Housing Appreciation