Where is the bottom of the Real Estate Market?

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.

Back to the meat of the matter:

House prices rise by 1.2%, says Nationwide. House prices staged a tentative recovery in May as the cost of the average British home unexpectedly rose by 1.2 per cent, in its strongest monthly gain for 19 months, according to figures from the Nationwide Building Society. The Times I wouldn’t get too excited about a UK recovery just yet – we have been watching median prices rise in a number of markets for the last two years as sales volumes dry up and the only stock moving is heavily discounted, more expensive properties. Eventually sellers drop their prices enough to sell in the lower end and median prices come into line with lower sales volumes.

Bernanke Bid to Lift Housing Scuttled by Rising Rates, Defaults. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to bring down borrowing costs to revive the housing market and help the economy are stalling. Mortgage rates are almost back to where they were in March before the 30-year rate fell to a record and sparked a refinancing boom. Mortgage delinquencies rose to a record 9.12 percent of U.S. home loans and house prices dropped the most on record in the first quarter, industry reports show. Bloomberg. No great surprises here – if anyone seriously expected the low interest rates to be passed on to the end consumer, they need their head examined. 12% next year anyone?

Spanish newspaper, El Pais was calling the bottom of the Spanish property downturn just last week after a miniscule rise in the amount of mortgages written in Spain. Once again, nothing worth getting t0o excited about here. Move along, just another desperate attempt by a newspaper to halt the inevitable slide. On a year-to-year basis new mortgage approvals have fallen for 21 months without a break, and residential mortgage approvals in the first quarter of this year are 36% lower than the same period last year. The value of the average residential mortgage signed in March was down 16% to 119,067 Euros, 3.7% lower than in February, and interest rates are now up to 5.1%. Spanish property insight

Kuwait real estate prices decline 50%. Prices of real-estate properties namely the housing units have fallen by 50 percent, the Commerce Undersecretary announced on Monday. Rashid Al-Tabtabaei, in a statement to journalists after inaugurating the 22nd Real-Estate and Investment Fair, indicated the prices of properties vary from region to another with regard of the location of the plot, nature of the region and the services available. Economic sectors, namely the real-estate, the finance, the tourism and the oil, in Kuwait and other countries, have been affected with fallouts of the international financial crisis. Arab Times

Nicaragua Real Estate Sales Fall 35 Percent. Property sales in Nicaragua have fallen by up to 35% in the last year with second home investors deserting the emerging real estate market. The market peaked in early 2008, according to Brooke Rundle, a broker with Coldwell Banker Nicaragua. She estimated that the number of transactions has decreased 30 to 35% since. Nuwire. Turns out this is not actually the case because property sales in Nicaragua have been declining since 2006, which is not exactly a shock either – seeing as most buyers in Nicaragua are American real estate investors.

Both the recent S&P Case Schiller and Knight Frank global house price index show prices steadily falling in all but a few markets with no end in sight as yet. There are a few interesting properties bouncing around at the moment though – a British couple are selling their English Farmhouse – private plane included. Luxury property