If you’re interested in keeping up with details about the economy but don’t have the time or interest — or the stomach — to follow daily developments, then you might want to make a point of reading Bill McBride’s weekly summaries that appear every Saturday on his blog Calculated Risk.
Tag: Housing
Another missed sign from the housing boom: Mortgage Equity Withdrawal
Another trend during the housing boom that should have told experts we were in a huge bubble.
AJC: Foreclosures still plague Georgia
“Foreclosure sales in Georgia accounted for 38 percent of all residential sales in the state during the third quarter, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac, the real estate research firm. Even though that’s a slight dip from the previous quarter, it’s still the highest percentage in the nation.”
The case against the mortgage interest deduction
A little over 10 years ago, I was flying back from London and had a long, long conversation with the man seated next to me. I had been to London to interview actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers for a now defunct Savannah-based magazine, and my neighbor had been there to pick up a cache of rare Emerson, Lake, & Palmer albums. Some interesting conversation ensued.
Armstrong’s Economic Monitor: Savannah area economy continues improving
I might have a little more to say about the 3rd quarter Economic Monitor prepared by Armstrong Atlantic State University’s Center for Regional Analysis, directed by economist Michael Toma, but things are getting better in the local economy. Given the rebounds in tourism and port traffic and given the visibly significant degree of new developments in the greater downtown area, it’s not surprising that employment data are looking strong.
Should you be buying or renting in the Savannah real estate market?
Zillow has come up with the “breakeven horizon” for 257 metro areas. That’s the point at which purchasing a home is more economical than renting an equivalent property.
Latest Case-Shiller home price data shows solidifying market
More good news from Case-Shiller today, with both composite indices and the national index showing solid year-over-year increases.
Homebuilder confidence and the housing rebound
I’m generally skeptical of measures of confidence in predicting future economic conditions, but the recent rebound of the National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index (HMI) can’t be discounted too much.
Home prices continue upward trend, but expect seasonal softness over the winter
S&P/Case-Shiller indices were released yesterday that showed a continued rebound in home prices off the post-recession lows. The prices for the 20-city composite index were up 2 percent in August 2012 from August 2011. From Case-Shiller: The 10- and 20-City…
New home sales up, but still way off the peak
New home sales ticked up today, but you can see on the great graph here by Calculated Risk that sales also ticked up back at the end of 2009 and in spring of 2010 — just before the twin expiration dates of the homebuyer tax credit. And when I say “ticked up”, that’s what I mean: the policy was completely inadequate given the massive scale of the decline in new home sales.
Georgia 2nd worst state in U.S. for REO loans
Some interesting news — and grim news for states including Michigan and Georgia — from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York about the number of REO loans nationally and per state. (REO = Real Estate Owned, i.e. properties now…
Construction and government employment lagging recovery — nationally and here in Savannah
I’m not getting into the relative merits of having additional government employees, but it’s a simple fact that governments at all levels have added employees as the nation’s population has increased — and those increases have generally been affected hardly at all by recessions. But this time is different.
Are you better off than you were four years ago?
“Of course, Obama has no chance of getting a second term in this economy,” my friend said definitively. “And whoever gets elected in 2012 will be a one-term President too.”
