No one should be troubled by national vacancy rate

The national vacancy rate has reached 13 percent, or the percentage of houses in the nation that are sitting empty. Since that figure doesn’t reflect how many of those houses are the; second, third or fifty-seventh home owned by the wealthy, that figure is incredibly misleading. The housing market is certainly down, however not entirely out.

Hot stops for vacations having trouble selling vacation homes

The economic statistics and indicators on real estate are viewed by individuals each day. These make it seem like the housing market is doomed. For instance, CNN recently published an article that said up to 13 percent of homes sit empty in The United States. The statistic is misleading really. CNN also states that vacation places like Maine, Florida and Arizona are where the majority of the vacancies are. There was an increase in the last four years in vacancies from 12.1 percent to 13 percent. That is less than a 1 percent increase.

Increase in pending sales

Bloomberg states that there was a rise in February of 2.1 percent in the number of homes officially in the process of selling, or Pending sales. The dip in home sales over the past few months was attributed partially to frigid winter conditions, as not a soul wants to go house hunting in the middle of a blizzard. The housing market isn’t doing as well nevertheless considering pending sales for February 2011 were 8.2 percent lower than they were in February 2010. Reuters reports that National Realtor's Association's chief economist Lawrence Yun believes that in 2011, older homes will sell faster than new homes meaning a rise in existing homes sales. The costs of new homes are much higher than the costs of old homes. This is how the market is right now.

Reality of realty

Individuals keep talking about a second crash in the housing market. This is part of the news going around. Banks do not want to lend as often right now while housing aren’t worth very much and sales are slow. While loan companies continue to worry about lending in this economy, there are also fewer individuals willing to purchase houses keeping prices low. In the next few years, a lot of people with a home will see the value rise while people who purchase now can be getting a deal.

Articles cited

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/03/28/real_estate/us_housing_vacancy_rates/index.htm?hpt=T2

Bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-28/pending-sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-unexpectedly-climbed-2-1-in-february.html

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/03/28/us-usa-economy-housing-idUSTRE72F3XG20110328