Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

U.S. Existing Home Sales Are Rapidly Slowing. Nobody Is Quite Sure Why
Fortune ^ | Today 7:34 PM EST | KEVIN KELLEHER

Posted on 01/22/2019 9:05:41 PM PST by dila813

U.S. housing sales, a key pillar of economic growth in recent years, are looking weaker again.

Existing home sales declined for much of 2018. In December, according to the National Association of Realtors, sales of single-family homes, condos, and co-ops fell a larger-than-expected 6.4% from the previous month. A Reuters survey of economists projected home sales to decline by a modest 1% in December.

(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: demwitstakethehouse; economy; federalreserve; housing; hud; interestrates; ratehikes; realty; trends
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-98 next last
To: Neidermeyer

China is not crashing.

China just set the all-time, new world trade surplus, with America.

Crashing?

Not one bit.


21 posted on 01/22/2019 9:49:04 PM PST by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ZephyrTX
That’s my first thought - the Chinese aren’t buying. Something deeper is going on.

Seems to be the case. Many invest in US real estate even if there is the possibility of the market going flat. The alternative is leaving the money in China and the risks associated with that. Maybe China is restricting the outflow of money to its citizens living elsewhere.

22 posted on 01/22/2019 9:49:37 PM PST by CatOwner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: mythenjoseph

Well said and likely true.


23 posted on 01/22/2019 9:49:48 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just hava few days that don't suck.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: rockinqsranch

I think you’ve hit on the reasons. Fortune trends liberal so it’s probably trying to cast aspersions toward Trump. They are always controlling the narrative. It’s just what liberals do.


24 posted on 01/22/2019 9:51:44 PM PST by Crucial
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dila813

There are lots of houses in blue states that are priced high enough that the new tax law will cause the owners to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for federal income taxes. If your home has property taxes over $10,000 you will pay more federal taxes. So if you have a cheap home, or you rent, you are better off. If you are very rich you don’t care. But if you have a home with taxes that are high enough, you will be paying a lot more every year. And those homes are not selling as well.


25 posted on 01/22/2019 9:53:06 PM PST by poinq
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: poinq

I’l just rent out my fixer rather than sell. Solar panels will be required on new 2020 construction in Calif so I gotta build that 2nd unit.


26 posted on 01/22/2019 9:56:54 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: dila813

I know why. It ain’t rocket science.

But I’m not sharing. If someone doesn’t beat me to it, it will be my next writing project.

Fair warning: All of you homeowners are complicit in this.


27 posted on 01/22/2019 10:04:45 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dila813

I wonder if this data is available broken down by region, and I wonder if lumbering blue states are dragging down the overall good numbers . . .


28 posted on 01/22/2019 10:05:52 PM PST by JohnBrowdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JoSixChip
I’m sure it has nothing to do with interest rates going up./s

If the financial geniuses at Fortune can't figure it out, how are we rubes in fly-over country supposed to know the answer?

29 posted on 01/22/2019 10:10:24 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dila813

If the Dems win the White House next year, expect them to roll back a lot of recent improvements in Old Manufacturing, just because Trump helped to make it happen. They are petty and they are proud of it! If a few thousand people lose their jobs, Oh Well! Those jobs probably would have wrecked the environment anyway. That’s how they think.


30 posted on 01/22/2019 10:10:26 PM PST by lee martell (AT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dila813

The ChiComs are running out of money.


31 posted on 01/22/2019 10:11:08 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea is getting cold.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sequoyah101

Are they recently abandoned or from the banking meltdown ten years ago?

I was told the banks just left them sitting empty rather than doing foreclosures because it affected their rating to have too many at once so they have slowly been working them off.

We had several like that here that just sat for years, people always asking about them, but in the past two years they finally went on the market and snap they were sold.


32 posted on 01/22/2019 10:17:17 PM PST by Valpal1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: dila813

According to Sunny Side properties, the market fluctuates. Even in the worst of times, there is plenty to do with real estate and people still need a roof over their head. With tight lending, there are more renters, so buy and hold is a good strategy. With easy (loose) lending and high demand, there are good opportunities for short term profits from home buyers. Regardless, a good investment strategy is hard to identify because everyone wants something different. And the writer of the rticle is no different that others.

rwood


33 posted on 01/22/2019 10:17:25 PM PST by Redwood71
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dila813

Go and trust your heart. Do it for yourself and your family. I’m sure you will be happier.


34 posted on 01/22/2019 10:31:10 PM PST by OKITRUMP77
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: poinq
There are lots of houses in blue states that are priced high enough that the new tax law will cause the owners to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for federal income taxes. If your home has property taxes over $10,000 you will pay more federal taxes. So if you have a cheap home, or you rent, you are better off. If you are very rich you don’t care. But if you have a home with taxes that are high enough, you will be paying a lot more every year. And those homes are not selling as well.

There is a strange perversity in the tax law.

As a landlord, my property taxes are 100% deductible as a business expense. The long-term result of this will be to turn the US into a nation of renters.

IMHO renters are ripe for a socialist takeover, owners not so much...

35 posted on 01/22/2019 10:47:22 PM PST by CurlyDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: CurlyDave

The Liberals definitely have the ultimate goal of government housing. They will achieve it by basically making it too difficult to make any money from being a landlord.


36 posted on 01/22/2019 10:48:22 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: rockinqsranch

Throw in bad weather over a lot of the US and you have a “witches’ brew” of bad financial timing re buying a house.

And for we lucky folks who have out of control Democrats taxing every kind of “property” they can get away with, it is no wonder young first home buyers are screwed, yet they still vote for these Marxist financial fools.

Maybe they can buy a “Tiny House” as a starter.


37 posted on 01/22/2019 10:51:09 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Valpal1

Rural. Mostly the old people dying off. Kids dont want the places. I know one guy is in jail. Some are drug bust properties meth labs etc. Very few are foreclosures.

More than a third of our counties have fewer people than they did 110 years ago.


38 posted on 01/22/2019 11:00:49 PM PST by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just hava few days that don't suck.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: ZephyrTX

At some point after 2008’s economic stumble....maybe around 2010 to 2012...there were various reports of Chinese syndicates who were coming into Phoenix and buying up dozens of homes per month as rental properties. It was a way to hide your cash flow and get something for investment purposes.

It may be that the Chinese gov’t has put enough pressure on exiting money to hinder that property investment idea.


39 posted on 01/23/2019 12:24:17 AM PST by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: rockinqsranch

Bingo


40 posted on 01/23/2019 1:02:58 AM PST by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in a dangerous Liberal world.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-98 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson