The Scream (E. Munch 1910)
The widest housing decline in the history of its surveys was reported by NAR in its 4Q 2006 report. According to the statistics, housing sales fell in 40 states and the median sales price dropped in 49% of 149 metropolitan areas, also the largest decline in the report’s 27 year history. Ouch. The Commerce Department added to the gloom by reporting Friday that new home construction was down 14.3% in January. Other crummy news for January:
- Median homes prices dropped 2.9% in January. The national median is now $219,000
- New home construction dropped 14.3% (28.5% in the West, 15.2% Midwest, 11.8% South)
- Change in new construction from last year: -37.8%
- Applications for new building permits were down 2.8%. That’s the 11th time in the last 12 months
NAR found the steepest declines in sales in Nevada (down 36.1%), Florida (30.8%), Arizona (26.9%) and California (21.3%). According to the Sellsius Blog Reports (no actual blog posts were calculated, we just guessed), there was a surge in real estate blogging activity in those states. Our statisticans came up with this easy to understand chart showing the correlation:
Sources for housing news: AP/CBS News; Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer (via Yahoo News)
While most of my fellow real estate bloggers have been busy writing extra posts, I’ve been busy working to develop a brainwashing technology. It’s embedded in “For Sale By Owner” signs, and broadcasts messages on a low-level frequency.
“You Will Call Team Greene Realty”
“You Will Price Your Home Correctly”
“You will Mow Your Lawn Once Weekly”
While results are mixed, initial observations indicate that the project has been successful in getting dogs to bark constantly in three of four participating neighborhoods.
You are a subliminal Svengali, Jonathan.
Yeah, If that strategy doesn’t work, I intend to train a crack force of Real Estate Ninjas to “coerce” people into listing with me at the right price.
Uh-oh, I think I just killed my plausible deniability.
Heck it keeps us off the streets and is relatively pro-social, we could be hanging out in bars or lurking around FSBO’s.
San Diego is (arguably) on the bloody edge of the real estate envelope. News media and even the NAR need to follow pending sales and status more closely. Our available inventory here is shrinking considerably and buyers seem to be rushing back into the market.
As a result, I spend more time working and less time watching television of any sort–so that I have time to blog. Now, let’s consider the next blogging casualty;-)
This is a pretty humorous but accurate post. Can real estate weblogging be a leading indicator? I’ll be reporting the changes to Bloomberg directly!