More from Economist’s Presentation
In my October 11th blog post, I reported California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) chief economist, Leslie Appleton-Young’s, comments and predictions about the real estate market.
Here are a few more interesting items, with graphs from her presentation:
- Sellers have a variety of reasons for selling. According to C.A.R. surveys, in 2006 75% of buyers were either looking for a larger home (55%) or more desirable location (20%). In 2009, 71% were selling because of financial distress of some kind: mortgage payment went up/trouble making payments (45%), moved to rental to save money (8%), or job loss (18%).
- Buyers are taking advantage of opportunities. 67% from the survey said they were motivated by price decreases; 39% declared that lower interest rates allowed them to move to a better location.
- Greater affordability. During our past seller’s market, California was the least affordable state to buy a house and there was a wide margin between national figures and those of our state. In 2009, there is only a small gap and about 68% of California household can now afford to purchase a home.
