Bob's Blog

The real estate valuation company Clear Capital recorded a 6.8% increase in home prices in May compared to a year ago. This is the largest home price increase in nearly four years and improves upon the 5.1% gains in March and April. More price growth is expected through the end of the Homebuyer T...

The national realty company Marcus and Millichap provides regular analysis of both national and local investment real estate trends. In their recent housing outlook report they question the sustainability of the housing market recovery without the buying incentive of the tax credit. The program e...

On the positive side, the May jobs report showed a decline in the unemployment percentage from 9.9% in April to 9.7% in May. The problem is, almost all of the improvement came as a result of 411,000 temporary federal jobs to complete the 2010 Census. The private sector created just 10,000 permane...

In a CNBC interview while on the way to the G20 meeting in South Korea Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, admitted that Fannie and Freddie “need fundamental reform” and once the financial bill is signed the GSE’s will be a focus of attention for that reform. There has been criticism tha...

A study by MDA DataQuick of affluent zip codes within the California Bay Area reveals a large increase in foreclosures among homes priced $730,000 and up. In the last 2 years over 1000 homes have become bank owned in a 9 county northern California area. That compares with just 42 Bay Area REOs in...

A Barclay’s Capital study has determined that lenders are holding a smaller number of bank owned property than previously estimated. Barclay’s warns that this is not to be considered a sign that the housing market is out of the woods as the REO supply is expected to grow over the next couple of y...

The National Association of Realtors chief economist, Lawrence Yun, recently noted the valuable service Investors played in turning around the California housing market last year while most other states were still reeling in the recession. As a result, the stock of lower priced houses on the mark...

Home prices fell 1.1% in the first quarter of 2010 according to Freddie Mac’s Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index. Prices are down 2.1% compared to the last quarter of 2009. Seasonally lower home values are expected in the winter months and may not necessarily reflect a weaker market. In anoth...

April saw improving home sales boosted by the homebuyer tax credit, attractive home prices and increasing consumer confidence. Existing home sales increased 7.6% in April, up 22.8% from April 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR expects to see a temporary decline in th...

The analytics company founded by housing authority Robert Shiller, MacroMarkets LLC, has polled a group of 92 housing market experts. The consensus of opinion is that the single family housing market will begin wide-spread recovery in 2011. This group predicts that housing prices will rise 12% be...