Sovereign Wealth Funds Move into Real Estate, Lifting Demand

The Outline of the Recession

A Tale of Two Luxury Markets

Better Than Expected, For Now
Home sales have climbed to their highest level in 2.5 years, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors for the month of October, spurred by buyers jumping on the first-time buyer tax credit. There is currently only a seven-month supply of homes on the market, which may explain the return of bidding wars in Manhattan. [ The Return Of Bidding Warfare ] Nationwide, sales are now 36 percent up from their January bottom, resales jumped 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million in October from the 5.54 million in September, outpacing economists’ estimates of 5.65 million. All f

The Return Of Bidding Warfare
Despite record days on market for the average apartment in New York in the third quarter “Not Yet A Bottom, But Turning A Corner as Sales Surge“, turns out that not all deals happen below offering price. Residential brokers across the city are finding that bidding wars are coming back, and apartments priced correctly are actually commanding prices above list price, according to the New York Times. Bidding Wars Resume Furthermore, because of the tightness in credit, a lot of the bids are coming in as cash

Bernanke Keeps The Course
Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that, despite the falling value of the dollar, the U.S. central bank is likely to keep interest rates exceptionally low for an “extended period,” reiterating the same statement the Fed made back in December when short-term interest rates were originally cut close to zero. While the decline in the dollar has helped steer commodity prices higher, increasing the risk of inflation, Bernanke insisted that the Fed expects inflation to “remain subdued for some time.” There are also concerns that raising rates to prop up the dollar may hinder economic recovery. The combo of low in

Tax Credit-Happy
The first-time home-buyer tax credit is due to expire at the end of the month, and it’s producing a frenzy. More data released by the National Association of Realtors on Friday shows the highest pending home sales level since December 2006, having already risen for eight consecutive months–the longest streak since the index came out in 2001–and the largest year-on-year jump in activity on record: compared to September 2008, the pending home sales index rose 21.2 percent this September. Compared to August this year, the index rose 6.1 percent to 110.1 this September. It’s not all good news, of course:

People Are Buying
Existing-home sales activity across the country is at its highest since July 2007, according to a report released Friday by the National Association of Realtors. Current housing supply is at its lowest in two and a half years. Much of this, according to the NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun, can be attributed to the first-time buyer credit, prompting him, like many others in the industry, to hope for an extension—and even a possible expansion—of the credit past its deadline next month. First-time buyers accounted for more than 45 percent of the sales during the past year. Sales in single-family, townhomes, condos and co-ops jumped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.57 million i