Home sales set records in march.

[gizmo1979]

How the heck is that possible,who's hoarding all the money? this report sounds hincky to me. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=16&u=/ap/20050426/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/home_sales_3

[Mass]

1. What about foreclosures?

They never give this number. I would imagine it is at his higher with people buying houses they cant pay for.

[unblock]

2. volume is up, but the median price dropped 9.3% from february

there's your answer.

[ultraist]

4. LOL! Two posts with the same time, same comment!

[ultraist]

3. The median price did drop nearly 10%

The big jump in sales was not accompanied by a rise in prices. The median price of a new home sold in March actually declined to $212,300, a 9.3 percent drop from the February level of $234,000.

[AlCzervik]

5. i bet many of those homes were financed using a

zero interest only arm mortgage.

[BlueStateBlue]

17. They just keep inventing new mortgage products

to keep the bubble inflated. This is going to be ugly when it's over.

[Warpy]

6. A third of the sales of new homes in this town

are to "investors." Whether or not those people are renting the houses out at bargain basement rates, hoping the housing bubble visits central NM, is anybody's guess. But they're not being bought by people who intend to live in them.

So I'm not surprised.

[edhopper]

7. Leanders are

finding new ways to get people into homes they can't afford. 0% down, interest only ARMs. POP!!

[Extend a Hand]

8. something's fishy here...

article from last week (4/19)...

With housing starts posting their biggest monthly decline in 14 years last month, many are wondering if slowdown in the nation’s red-hot housing market is now emerging.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7558576/

then article from today
Government data show sales up 12.2 percent in March

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7641180/

[gizmo1979]

11. yeah I thought I had read something like that.

So who's reporting bad numbers? Consumer confidence is low is this a way to try and pick it up?

[BlueStateBlue]

16. It's definitely fishy

They changed the method of reporting - it now includes townhouses, condos and co-ops.

[unblock]

18. different statistics around

it's easy to get lost in the maze.
NEW home sales, EXISTING home sales, and housing STARTS are all different things.

[yankeedem]

9. A local town is building 4700 units

in the next 10 years, most of them waterfront property on NY harbor. Be a shame if all those 1 million$ townhouses collapsed in price, wouldn't it?

[zoeb]

10. I read foreclosures were up in many areas

One Ohio county had 300 in one month. In New York, 50 out of every 1000 homes is closed on each month. Some people are paying as much as 60-70% of income on home costs because renting became to high. I thought I read where closings reached an all new high but can't find the story. But of Greenspan continues raising rates, the ARM loans will jump considerably by the end of summer...it sucks to be in a variable rate loan with current conditions!!!

[gizmo1979]

12. I had read that forclosures were at

an all time high.That was just last week.Someones trying to put lipstick on a pig!

[zoeb]

13. I googled foreclosures

and just about every major metropolitan area has an increase in closures from this month to last month. One reported 57% in their area. Maybe that increase in sales is coming from re-sales. I guess they could be flipping the foreclosed homes over to investers.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. I don't know

In my neighborhood there's two/three houses for sale. One house has been for sale a lil while.

[BlueStateBlue]

15. I read that they recently changed the method of reporting

home sales. They used to report on single family homes separately - now they include townhouses, condos and co-ops. That would explain the drop in price. The timing is also perfect to mask the bursting of the biggest real estate bubble ever. A lot of smart people say this is going to make the Nasdaq crash in 2000 look like a blip.