Mike Larson - Weiss Research expert on housing, interest rates, mortgages, and consumer finance.

From the category archives:

Housing Market

We just got our latest look at existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors. Sales rose 1.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in October from 4.9 million a month earlier. That topped expectations for a reading of 4.8 million. We saw strength in most of the country, with sales [...]

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We just got a look at September existing home sales figures. Total sales fell 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.91 million from 5.06 million in August. That was right in line with the estimates of economists polled by Bloomberg. Single-family sales dropped 3.6%, while condo sales rose 1.8%.
The “months supply at current [...]

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The September housing starts figures were just released and they popped by a surprising 15%. The 658,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate of starts was well ahead the median forecast of 590,000 and the highest since April 2010. We saw broad-based regional strength as well, led by the West with a gain of 18.1%.
However, the strength [...]

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Pending home sales dip in August

by Mike Larson on September 29, 2011

in Economy, Housing Market, Real Estate

The latest pending home sales figures were just released, and they showed a 1.2% drop between July and August. That was the second monthly decline in a row and it left the seasonally adjusted index at 88.6, the lowest since April. Sales fell 2.4% in the West, 3.7% in the Midwest, and 5.8% in the [...]

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New home sales slump to six-month low

by Mike Larson on September 26, 2011

in Economy, Housing Market, Real Estate

We just got new home sales figures for August, and they were nothing to write home about. Sales fell 2.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000 from 302,000 a month earlier. That was roughly in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
The number of homes on the market continued to [...]

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Starts slip in August

by Mike Larson on September 20, 2011

in Economy, Housing Market, Real Estate

The latest housing starts figures just hit the tape. Starts fell 5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 in August from 601,000 a month earlier. That missed expectations for a reading of 590,000. On the flip side, building permits rose 3.2% to a 620,000 SAAR from 601,000. That was slightly above forecasts for [...]

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Pending home sales dip in July

by Mike Larson on August 29, 2011

in Economy, Housing Market, Real Estate

Pending home sales dipped in July, falling 1.3% on the month. That was roughly in line with expectations. Regionally speaking, sales fell 0.8% in the Midwest, 2% in the Northeast, and 4.8% in the South. They rose 3.6% in the West.
The pending home sales figures fall into the same “lackluster” category as all the [...]

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Have you seen America’s Financial Doomsday?Click here to tell us what you think of the video!
About 48 hours from now — on Friday, August 26, 2011 — Benjamin S. Bernanke will step before the microphones in Jackson Hole to comment after this week’s Federal Reserve meetings there.
Normally, we’d expect the Fed [...]

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New home sales slip to 5-month low

by Mike Larson on August 23, 2011

in Economy, Housing Market, Real Estate

New home sales figures for July were just released. They showed that sales dipped 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 298,000 from a downwardly revised 300,000 in June. That was slightly worse than the 310,000 sales economists were looking for, and the lowest level since February.
The raw number of homes for sale [...]

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Have you seen America’s Financial Doomsday?Click here to tell us what you think of the video!

Get this one question wrong and it could cost you everything.
Get it right, and you’ll be one of the few who emerge from this great financial crisis with your wealth intact and growing.
We created America’s Financial [...]

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