From Forbes:
Home Prices Rise A Steady 5.4% In January, S&P/Case-Shiller Says
Home sales prices rose 5.4% in January, continuing at a moderate and steady pace despite ongoing inventory shortages, a report released Tuesday said. Home prices are rising twice as fast as both inflation and wages.
January’s 5.4% year-over-year increase was slightly up from December 2015′s (downwardly revised) 5.3% pace of home price appreciation, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which tracks repeat sales for homes in all nine Census divisions. Homes in America’s largest 20 metro areas appreciated at a slightly faster pace, welcoming 5.7% annual sales price growth in January, while prices in a select 10-city index rose an annual 5.1%. Again, both indices were slightly up from the annual gains in December.
“Home prices continue to climb at more than twice the rate of inflation,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.“The low inventory of homes for sale–currently about a five month supply–means that would-be sellers seeking to trade-up are having a hard time finding a new, larger home.”
Price appreciation, which reached breakneck double-digit increases during housing’s recovery, moderated to around an annual 4-5% nationally by late 2015. But across the country and in all the cities that Case-Schiller tracks–except for Chicago (2.1%) and Washington, D.C.(2.2%)–home prices are still rising far faster than the core 2.3% rate of inflation (all items less food and energy). They’re also growing at a faster rate than wages, which have been stuck at about 2.25% annual growth for the past two years.
A shortage of housing for sale continues to push up prices, particularly at the lower end of the market. Last week Trulia released a report showing that the inventory of starter and trade-up homes is down more than 40% since 2012, making it difficult for would-be buyers to get into the market. Starter home inventory is down most in the West and South, with affordability particularly bad in California, according Trulia.
Underscoring the points of Trulia’s report, Tuesday’s S&P/Case-Shiller data reports high year-over-year price gains in Portland (11.8%), Seattle (10.7%), San Francisco (10.5%), and Denver (10.2%). Eleven of the cities recorded greater annual price increases in January than December. After Denver, the next highest annual gain was in Dallas (9.2%), followed by Tampa (7.4%), and Los Angeles (6.9%). Phoenix’s annual gain dipped to 6.1%, ending a year-long streak of increasing annual gains each month. Price gains were weakest in the Northeast region of the country; Boston had an annual 3.6% gain, New York 2.8%.
Good Morning New Jersey
From MarketWatch:
When it comes to saving money, millennials are killing it
If you’re among the crowd who believe the current crop of 18-to-29-year-olds are a wasteful bunch, with zero smarts about money, a new survey may have you eating some crow.
It turns out that those youngsters, otherwise known as millennials, are saving a bigger chunk of their paychecks than any other age group, according to a fresh survey from Bankrate.com.
From FOX Business:
Robert Shiller: Housing Market Driven by Psychology
Housing prices rose in January, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. The 20-city composite climbed 5.7% year-over-year in the first month of 2016.
“These markets, I think, are substantially driven by psychology,” Shiller said during an interview on Cavuto: Coast to Coast. “And the psychology now is a little bit hard to interpret. Note that the cities with the biggest price increases are successful tech, entrepreneurial cities in many cases. So maybe people kind of believe in these markets as their salvation or their hope.”
Shiller, who is also an economics professor at Yale University, said there is a decline in the interest of homes today.
“People aren’t as impressed by homes anymore after they saw how they collapsed in price with the financial crisis,” he said. “So it’s not such a clear case. I don’t think people are as impressed by big McMansions anymore as they used to be.”
He also explained why he believes a home is a good asset to have.
“The other thing about housing is that if you put yourself into a mortgage and you pay it off, you’re putting yourself into a saving program. A lot of people don’t save outside of some kind of a discipline device like that. So in that sense housing is a good investment.”
From the Philly Inquirer:
Spring market worry: A dearth of homes for sale
A shortage of for-sale inventory again threatens to derail the full recovery of the residential real estate market, both nationwide and in the Philadelphia region.
The National Association of Realtors on Monday blamed February’s lackluster sales of previously owned homes on “unshakably low supply levels and steadfast price growth” in parts of the United States.
Low inventory of homes was a contributing factor in the 7.1 percent decline in national sales in February from January’s levels after six positive months, the Realtors group said. Still, the numbers were 2.2 percent higher than February 2015 levels.
…
“In virtually every individual market that we track throughout Bucks County, by traditional measures – meaning that less than six months of inventory indicates a seller’s market – we are experiencing an inventory shortage,” said Martin Millner of Coldwell Banker Hearthside Realtors, in Yardley.
He also said there were “a fair amount of overpriced homes” on the market that haven’t sold because of that factor.
Millner added, however, that “the inventory shortage has not translated into any significant amount of [price] appreciation.”
On the contrary, many agents said, homeowners are waiting to list their houses until prices recover enough for them to sell without losing a lot of money.
In the city, “we are really finding inventory shortages all across the board – especially for nice-looking properties within strong neighborhoods,” said Mark Wade of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Fox & Roach Realtors, in Center City. “Demand is outweighing supply.”
For February, BHHS Fox & Roach Realtors’ HomExpert Market Report showed inventory in the eight-county region down about 3,100 houses from the same month in 2015.
Sales were down by 135 units – from 3,792 in January to 3,657 in February, though that was up 13.9 percent over the levels of February 2015.
Gary Segal of Keller Williams Real Estate, in Blue Bell, said there is an inventory shortage in the Conshohocken area. And in towns such as Whitpain, Springfield, Upper Dublin, Horsham and Lower Gwynedd, he noted, there is a shortage of listings at the $350,000 price point.
“The highest end of the [suburban] market has the opposite problem: too many listings over $1 million,” Segal said.
John Duffy of Duffy Real Estate, on the Main Line, noted: “We could use more homes in the $500,000 to $750,000 price range in the suburbs, and any price range in certain areas of the city,” where his agents also sell homes.
The “best advice I give to my buyers,” Wade said, “is to take their time to look around and learn what they truly want.”
$508.00 rent a month for a box inside a house
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/273170
The flip across the street from me, which I figured would not go for more than $550k or so was sold for $625k…..this was the 1959 3bdr split that they bought for $290k and completely gutted and rebuilt, of course it took them 2 years…..
@nytimes
Donald Trump says he no longer vows to support the Republican nominee
7 – all three vowed not to support each other. Why did the NY Times only comment on his stance?
5 – bring out the gimp
Democratic primary fake, yet most of the sheep don’t know or care.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-superdelegates-largely-back-clinton-sanders-article-1.2581729
I only hope that this is prescient of the demise of the two party system in America.
I see no other way to bring moderation back to politics and move the discussion to the middle.
All we have are extremist candidates.
That’s the bottom line.
“The other thing about housing is that if you put yourself into a mortgage and you pay it off, you’re putting yourself into a saving program. A lot of people don’t save outside of some kind of a discipline device like that. So in that sense housing is a good investment.”
The party affiliation thing stopped making sense to me years ago, I formally switched out back in 2002…I do not believe either or any party accurately reflects my views…
2-
Grim, brace yourself for another “microagression”…
Are paychecks what they are calling allowances now?
14 – Reporting you to the bully police.
:)
I registered as “unaffiliated”. They don’t call it independent in NJ for whatever reason.
If I ever want to vote in a primary in NJ….for either party, you can declare your party affiliation the day of the primary, and then switch back to unaffiliated later.
I want to see party affiliation and any other grouping of political affiliation removed from ballots.
That would be a great first step.
https://voter.njsvrs.com/PublicAccess/servlet/com.saber.publicaccess.control.PublicAccessNavigationServlet?USERPROCESS=PublicSearch
# 14 & # 15 – Relevant artwork.
http://tinyurl.com/pch4nbt
#18… I like my town set up, non-partisan, no Dem/Rep allowed on town council ballots. Obviously you can figure it out for some folks but it keeps (for the most part) the County and State machines out of the mix
re# 18 – What you propose might require a constitutional amendment. Good luck getting the politicians to vote themselves out of a job.
Polarization will only get worse.
If you thought Bernie and Trump were awful, they are 1/10th as bad as what we will see in years to come – a harbinger of things to come.
A multi-party system is the only way for the moderate/middle ground to get any kind of voice again.
If we could move off groups of people just voting R or D based on some concept they have in their minds of the past, that would be a start…
Grim – We have a multi-party system, after the Dems and Republicans the third largest party the Libertarian Party can only get on the ballot in 34 states. State laws set stringent ballot access requirements, that isn’t going to be pulled from the States anytime soon, there is no way the State lawmakers would ever vote to end their jobs and their parties and patronage systems.
They best you can hope for is a third party rich guy like Ross Perot to come along and spend them all out of existence. He would need to buy everybody to get another party on the ballot in all states. We would just end up with another party like the Whig Party which put 4 presidents into the White House before it imploded.
at least 2 Supreme Court will be appointed by Hil
@BenjySarlin
Scalia’s death singlehandedly saved public sector unions yesterday.
More cascading effects to 4-4 court coming up.
cause he broke the GOP
D-FENS says:
March 30, 2016 at 8:05 am
7 – all three vowed not to support each other. Why did the NY Times only comment on his stance?
Nothing to see here:
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/temporary_workers_collecting_millions_on_top_of_th.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured
Karsen has collected nearly $1 million from public coffers since July 2011. That was the month he retired as a Newark school principal and was hired into a NJ Department of Education program to help underperforming schools.
In 2015, NJDOE paid Karsen $138,300 as executive director of a Regional Achievement Center in Paterson. He also received a $97,916 a year state pension – thanks to a lucrative loophole in the law. His annual total was $236,216.
…
Seven double-dipping TES workers on NJDOE’s payroll each raked in more than $200,000 last year. At the top of that list is Karsen, followed by:
• Laura Morana, $213,721 – Received $120,000 as interim county superintendent for Middlesex County plus $93,721 in pension as retired Red Bank schools superintendent.
• Judith DeStefano-Anen, $212,591 – $80,045 as interim education specialist for Ocean County schools; $132,546 as retired Stafford Twp. schools superintendent.
• Joseph Zarra, $209,735 – $114,800 as interim county superintendent in Essex County; $92,849 as retired Nutley schools superintendent.
• Rosalie Lamonte, $206,452 – $123,400 as interim county superintendent in Sussex and Warren counties; $83,052 as retired Mount Olive schools superintendent.
• Josephine McDowell, $205,101 – $114,500 as turnaround coach for a RAC in Essex County; $90,601 as a retired Newark schools executive.
• Catherine V. Coyle, $200,005 – $126,240 as special assistant to the state education commissioner; $73,765 as a retired Jersey City schools administrator.
Hey Anon,
You cheating on your wife yet?
Damn shame all of that income inequality being generated by the school system.
You have a situation where a retiree should up and retire, and give that job to an able younger candidate.
Instead, they take the pension and the job, and get paid a king’s ransom.
While someone else is jobless.
Why no outrage anon? I know CEOs and Presidents that make less money than this lot.
Grim [23];
I have often thought that there was something to be said for a multi-party parlimentary system.
Condo [24];
In a world of rational ignorance (any individual’s vote is a drop in the ocean, so why bother to educate yourself about the particulars?), voting by party affiliation is about as close as one can get to voting their interests. Party affiliation is more likely to predict what a given congresscritter would do in office than anything they say or have even done in the past.
Where we could be heading, keep an eye for Brazil and its “coalitional presidentialism”:
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21647329-governing-getting-harderbut-it-doesnt-have-be-so-difficult-or-dirty-cleaning-up-latin
The study:
http://www.idea.int/resources/analysis/loader.cfm?csmodule=security/getfile&pageid=37959
28 Sad
you can get rid of Unions after you do this first
March 17, 2016 — 5:59 AM EDT
A parliamentary committee on Wednesday approved a limit on annual compensation for Israel’s top financial executives, in what could be the first step to curb pay at the country’s biggest companies.
Salaries at banks and insurance companies will be capped at 2.5 million shekels ($649,000), according to a statement published on the website of Israel’s Knesset, the country’s parliament. The draft legislation must still pass a second and third reading.
In NY, my retired FDNY brother is not allowed to take any paid NYC job since he collects a pension, this includes being a sub teacher. It is all considered double dipping.
quickly! we need some violins over here…
grim says:
March 30, 2016 at 1:21 pm
I know CEOs and Presidents that make less money…..
He’s an idiot and takes his marching orders from the media.
Why no outrage anon?
A constitutional convention would not require their consent. It’s never been used, but it is a way citizens can get a constitutional amendment passed without them.
It’s probably the only way we’d ever get legislative bodies to be subjected to term limits. That’s probably step one of the demise of the two party system.
Juice Box says:
March 30, 2016 at 12:11 pm
re# 18 – What you propose might require a constitutional amendment. Good luck getting the politicians to vote themselves out of a job.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/29/states-rights-advocates-eye-convention-to-bypass-congress-amend-constitution.html
http://www.conventionofstates.com/billboniface
I know it’s probably more fun to bitch…but enough people together can actually do something about it.
“Tyrannical Aristocracy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVQH0JbwIgA
Each State gets one vote by a delegate at the convention…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_state_legislatures
Jed Kolko drops the bomb, today may well be a rare double post day.