Wakka...wakka...wakka...
Posted on 04/26/2006 10:32:45 AM PDT by george76
Single-family home sales and prices in Massachusetts fell 1.5 percent in March, capping a first quarter in which sales slowed dramatically from the previous year...
''Inventory is at record highs, so buyers are taking their time," said David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. ''They can pick among several houses so they don't feel the pressure."
The slowdown in Massachusetts' housing market ran counter to a surprising pick-up in March in nationwide sales of homes, condominiums, and townhouses.
Analysts had predicted that strong February sales...
The housing market in Massachusetts ''simply isn't as strong as it is in other states," ...
a combination of population losses -- the US Census Bureau estimates the state lost more than 42,000 residents a year between 2001 and 2004 -- and a sluggish economy combined to curtail sales.
''People are leaving for other states, and there's less demand for housing than there is in the rest of the country,"...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
People are leaving for other states
Evidence for this?? Mass. is clearly losing population. Many folks say they are leaving because of taxes and housing costs. They leave, and demand for housing decreases so housing costs decrease. We call this "the marketplace".
Now, if the state would only do something about the taxes, we might stop losing population. But this talk about a "sluggish economy" is just an attempt at misdirection.
"The slowdown in Massachusetts' housing market ran counter to a surprising pick-up in March in nationwide sales of homes..."
Mass has rising taxes and is losing population.
Soon only the DUmmies will be left.
They will lose another Congressional Seat and lose another vote for President...soon.
You don't demand that people embrace the teaching of the homo-perve lifestyle to kindergartners and NOT suffer an exodus of the most normal among them leaving for places that think kids ought to be well, kids. Between social engineering BS like that and confiscatory tax policies, it's amazing there are any people left in states like these. No wonder the Soviets had to build a wall to imprison their population.
I'm just glad to see a housing topic started by somebody OTHER than ex-Texan...
Looks like folks are heading South in Record #'s. Gee, I wonder why......?
I Agree. NY is also loosing population. People up in the north are leave beause of the Taxes and house prices. I think the cold harsh winters are also another ffactor, but taxes and house prices are the primary reason.
''Inventory is at record highs, so buyers are taking their time,"
Umm... Maybe buyers are waiting to see how low prices will fall.
Why buy a house today, for $600,000, if you can wait until 2007 and buy the same house for $525,000?
What - Nobody wants to live in socialism? THEN WHY DO THEY KEEP RE-ELECTING THE LIKES OF KENNEDY AND KERRY?
NH is the only state in New England that grew in the 1990's and the only one expected to grow in this decade. It is not the weather that is driving people out of MA as many are moving North as I did 10 years ago from MA. The quality of life is better and the tax picture is the opposite of MA. Heck, even car insurance is half what it is in MA. It is only about 35 miles from downtown Boston to the NH border. It is relatively easy to go to Boston from southern NH for a Red Sox game, dinner in the North End, etc. Then you can go home and not deal with the crime, the pollution, the crowds....
The Mass exodus...
You are correct.
Why the voters re-elect the DUmmie fools is beyond me.
If I lived there, I would leave.
Lib states are in big trouble. I just don't get it. (sarc)
"It is relatively easy to go to Boston from southern NH for a Red Sox game, dinner in the North End, etc. Then you can go home and not deal with the crime, the pollution, the crowds"
Well it is now with the new buried highway. It used to
be a beotch to get off the Fitz and into the Callahan
Tunnel to get to the airport. Its still bad trying to get to
Chinatown. Property taxes in our town (Amherst NH) were the highest I've ever experienced.
I left MA in 1977 for VA and never regretted it for one moment.
Whenever I return home I am astonished by the rudeness of people, the stupidity of the politicians and voters, and the remarkable cost of living.
It is a dreadful place to live. And it's as cold as a bad memory. I do not miss those winters.
New York State is losing even more people.
NY will lose another Congressional Seat and lose another vote for President, soon.
On a percentage basis, Mass may be losing more...but NY is losing more bodies.
The weather is bad, but there are many more reasons to leave than just bad weather.
''People are leaving for other states, and there's less demand for housing than there is in the rest of the country,"...
The land of Kennedy, Kerry and that crazy gay predator Barnie plus high taxes is driving people with a brain away.
Soon Kennedy and his pet pit bull, Kerry, will be telling America about the sad state of Mass re real estate. Then they will push for a National Home Buying Insurance for idiots who want to live in Mass.
Notice how the Blue Cities, counties and some blue states are really starting to lose population. First they abort their future. Then they dumb them down in school while pushing the Gay life style. Then they blame Bush when these dumbed down liberals can't find work.
With their high tax rates and the rest of the list...who would want to own any real estate or run a business is such a place ?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621786/posts
Stunning 13.8% increase in new home sales
Market Watch.com ^ | 26 April 2006 | Rex Nutting
Posted on 04/26/2006 7:25:24 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
ECONOMIC REPORT Stunning 13.8% increase in new home sales
Median prices down year-over-year first time since Dec. 2003 By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- New home sales unexpectedly increased by 13.8% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.213 million, the highest level of the year, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday. The increase more than reversed the 10.9% decline in sales in February. It was far stronger than the mild increase to 1.10 million annualized that was expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. See Economic Calendar.
Combined with the small increase reported in existing home sales on Tuesday, the report shows the housing market was much stronger in March than anyone had reason to believe. See earlier story. Other housing market indicators, including mortgage applications, housing starts and builders' sentiment, are pointing to a softer housing market.
The strength in home sales, if it persists, could keep the economy growing faster than the Federal Reserve wants and could lead to higher interest rates than now expected. See our complete coverage of the Fed. New home sales are down 8.2% year-to-date. Read the full report.
The government cautions, however, that its housing data are subject to large sampling and other statistical errors. The margin of error is so large, in fact, that the government cannot say with confidence that sales rose at all in March.
It can take up to six months for a trend in sales to emerge. New home sales have averaged 1.22 million per month over the past six months, down from 1.23 million in February and 1.30 million in November.
The inventory of unsold homes on the market increased 2.8% to 550,000, representing a 5.5-month supply at the March sales pace, down from 6.3 months in February. Median home prices fell 2.2% year-over-year to $224,200. It's the first time prices had fallen year-over-year since December 2003.
In March, sales rose 35.7% in the West, reversing the 30.3% drop in February. Sales increased 6.9% in the South, 10.9% in the Midwest and 4.7% in the Northeast.
In a separate report, the Commerce Department said orders for durable goods increased 6.1% in March, including a 71% gain in aircraft orders. Bookings were solid across most industries. See full story.
Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.
The DUmmies tricked us with a proposed $1 Billion Tunnel and we got stuck with a still leaking $20 Billion Big Dig.
The prices are still "flexible."
Meanwhile across country in the IE area of Southern California this is happening;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621868/posts
I.E. region's median home price tops $400,000
The Daily Bulletin ^ | 4/26/2006 | Michael Rappaport
Posted on 04/26/2006 9:09:30 AM PDT by Smogger
Going up. For all the predictions that the elevator had reached the top, that housing prices had peaked and would only go sideways, the Inland Empire reached another milestone and posted an all-time high in March. The median price of a single-family home in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area was $403,000 in March, according to numbers released Tuesday by the California Association of Realtors.
It's the first time the median price has passed the $400,000 mark, and it comes just 21 months after prices topped $300,000 for the first time in June 2004.
"A lot of people who have been talking about the market softening were expecting prices to go down," said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. "Well, unit sales may be down, but prices are still going up, or at least moving sideways."
Free health care for all, free tuition for illegal immigrants at state schools, and a few other things that you won't see reported truthfully in that rag cited here.
"The DUmmies tricked us with a proposed $1 Billion Tunnel and we got stuck with a still leaking $20 Billion Big Dig."
How was Kerry involve with this losing project?
Wakka...wakka...wakka...
If the new home sales nationwide were down, then the Mass and NY DUmmies could try to blame Bush.
The DUmmies now only have themselves to blame.
They will not do it, because they are DUmmies...
Imagine how much higher the national home sales would be, if the nation did not have the anchors of NY and Mass DUmmies around their necks.
Taxes in Massachusetts are the same or even less than they are in Georgia and North Carolina, two states where a lot of northerners are moving. I think it's about housing more than anything else, with a little bit of weather thrown in.
Have you ever told us where you live? I know we've run into each other on threads like this before.
PLease click on the picture for the nice music...
Who is going to pay for all that free stuff ?
Free health care, free tuition, free transportation, free housing, free food, free...?
If I had not left Mass. it would have only been 41,999 residents fleeing the State.
Its not just the taxes, the Kennedys, its also sitting on RT 128 every morning. The traffic stinks at all hours.
I do miss the steak tips and lobster rolls however.
Thank goodness I can get Harpoon IPA in NC.
Thanks, I'll be here all week, try the veal and don't forget to tip the waitresses!
"I have just returned from Boston. It is the only sane thing to do if you find yourself up there." --Fred Allen
Earmarking for my return after a fun filled honey do afternoon. My trophy bride will buy me lunch before I become a beast of burden.
Again, Georgia and North Carolina take a greater share of their residents' income in taxes than Massachusetts does. We're all middling-tax states, neither high nor low.
Of the others on that chart, Texas, South Dakota, and Florida are certainly low-tax states, while Ohio, New York, and New Jersey are high-tax states. I don't know about the rest.
The tax burden here isn't much worse than in NH (the taxes are just disguised differently) and is better than most of the northeast, so I don't think that's much of a factor. The crime syndicate known as public education is active in all states, so I'd tend to discount that too, (though with all the gay marriage publicity we certainly aren't attracting many nice "normal" families from other parts of the country). What we do have are many empty-nesters looking to cash out while the prices are still historically high and this has upped the inventory of existing houses and caused the prices to correct a bit. New homes are popping up everywhere and that too is adding price pressure. Once these empty nesters do sell many are choosing to move to other states, or scaling down and buying condos (that market is still doing well) and pocketing the difference.
The graphs on post number 32 might help explain the views from Barron's Magazine and the US Census Bureau.
They note general population trends from high to low tax states. Their legend refers to seven different and specific catagories.
New York and Mass both have "E."
NY also has "HO" while Mass also has "low RB."
North Carolina has both "LO" and "RB."
Georgia has "LS" and "RB."
The Massachusetts economy has been stagnant for the past two years (at least). After 14 months of unemployment (B.S. Chemistry, MBA) I will be starting a new job next week. Employers were reluctant to hire, though they were actively looking. Examine a job description and it would seem as if the job was previously done by two (or three) people with very different skill sets. Strong product development and technical skills would be primary requirements, but an unspoken requirement to lead sales was also desired. Not finding the ideal candidate, they would "reevaluate the position".
With Kerry and Kennedy as a constant affront to the administration, Massachusetts has certainly not received any special favors to bolster the economy. Our pinhead Reps (i.e. Meehan and Markey to name but two) are not much better. However, Mass residents don't see how they are voting against their interests by continually supporting these reprobates.
Every day, 100 people like me (taxpayers) leave the state. I'm glad I was able to hold on, I'll leave on my own terms in the future.
We wish you well.
Hopefully more of the voters will wake up and realize that socialism does not work.
I read the chart, and was responding to it. I don't think it's very well thought-out; they took migration patterns and then speculated, if taxes were the reason, what taxes would come into play if people moved. The categories of low-tax and high-tax are just wrong in some cases, specifically the ones I mentioned.
The 20-somethings and 30-somethings leaving Massachusetts are not doing so because our state has an estate tax.
Your right, housing certainly plays a big role. A lot of Ny'ers are moving to Florida too.
My parents left Taxachusetts for Arizona fifty years ago this summer. Was the best decision they ever made (besides us kids, of course!).
No they are not.
But nice respectable folks like me and my family are leaving because, it just SUCKS to live here period!
I'll keep on the Cape part time because that is my heart, But I CANNOT WAIT TO GET OUT OF THIS SOCIALIST CESSPOOL!
The tipping point was the Gay Marriage thing and trying to raise normal kids..I'm Done!
Please......the NH "total" tax burden is much less than Massachusetts, I have lived in both states. There is no sales tax, no income tax, no capital gains tax in NH. There is a high property tax, in some towns....that's it. Any chart from Money magazine, or other such publications will show you the breakdown between the states. Massachusetts is not as bad as it once was, but don't compare it to NH.
Sure not seeing that out here in the west - especially in AZ and NV.
Disenfranchised Voters?
Well, that is a simple matter of demographics. Massachusetts has been around for a long time, so that a great many people have lived there. This means that a great many people have died there. The simple fact of life and death is that young people vote democrat, and turn toward republican as they have children and get mugged, until they die, at which time they become staunch democrats. By now, the number of dead people voting democrat exceeds the number of people voting republican. Eventually, if not already, if the living people all decided to vote republican, there are enough dead voters to keep democrats in office forever.
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