National news front

In their latest forecast for the US real estate market the National Association of Realtors (NAR), expects sales to decline 1.2 percent while price appreciation is expected to grow 1.5 percent. See “Home Prices Expected to Rise, Sales to Drop Slightly” or “Gradual Rise Projected for Home Sales” on the NAR site for details.

The reports of improvement in the national real estate market continue to flow as the Mortgage Bankers Association reported the volume of applications for loans to purchase homes rose 16.2 percent compared to the previous week and is at the highest level in nearly a year. The volume was up about 3 percent compared to the same time last year. For more information see, “Mortgage applications surge”.

I enjoy reading about the national trends but understand real estate is a local business and our market here in the greater Sacramento area is showing some positive signs but not in full recovery. As the author of the following anonymous comment posted on another blog points out there are people who feel we have not seen the worst.

The folks hoping that we have found a bottom and now breathing a sigh of relief
at some of the recent news that sales have picked up and inventories are coming
down are not seeing the big picture. I would submit that the sales spike last
quarter was our first Suckers Rally. People who know that November/December are traditionally weak sales periods jumped into the market thinking that it should
be the bottom and that things would rebound in the spring. These are people who
are still generally optimistic on the value of Sacramento real estate... they
are also Suckers.