Smashing Estate

The National Association of Realtors informed on Thursday that, home sales cut down 3 percent to an annual rate of 4.57 million in March, month from a downwardly revised pace of 4.71 million units in February. More disaster still to come as Thomas Reuters expecting the sales might drop to an annual pace of 4.7 million units.

The median sales price in March was $175,200, a fall of 12.4 percent from a year ago, but higher than February’s median price of $168,200. While median sales prices normally rise slightly in early spring, the 4 percent monthly increase was larger than expected.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of National Associate of Realtors said,

The results were “a little disappointing” given that homes are more affordable than they’ve been in years and mortgage rates are near record lows,

Yun have also pointed to a firm sales recovery in western cities, where the prices have dropped most. The rest of the country could start to see the sales have improved by the early summer, said Yun.

On Wednesday, information from a business group confirmed that, the volume of mortgage applications of U.S. climbed last week, as require for home purchase loans climbed still as interest rates edged up from record shorts.

Mortgage Applications increase by 4.7 percent for the week and it is the 5th raise in a row.  And hopeful news from the statement is the purchase index climbed by 11.1 percent which is the largest week on week achieved since Nov 28, 2008 and just the 10th double digit enhance since January 2008.  And achievement happened in spite of the increase in mortgage price to 4.73 percent from 4.61 percent.

Cameron Findlay, Chief economist of LendingTree.com which is based on Charlotte, North Carolina, said that,

The quality of the borrowers coming to us has remained high with high FICO scores (scores refer to borrowers’ credit ratings) and low loan-to-value ratios He also added,

This is an encouraging sign as responsible borrowers looking to purchase or refinance their homes are getting the help they need with low rate, high-quality loans.

The data of weekly mortgage application is really great sign to hope, it’s a great indication for financial releases for the upcoming weeks as the summer or spring housing period gets into rock.

During the first quarter of this year 21 condos sold in Downtown. The amount decreased 62% compared to 55 condos sold in first quarter of the last year. The figure is revealed by   Center City Commission (CCC) recent report. However, the report says the sales amount increased 40% compared to 15 condos sold in fourth quarter of previous year. 205 condos sold for all the year round of 2008. The amount declined 5.9% compared to 218 condos sold during 2007. The figure declined 55.8% too, compared to 464 condos sold during 2006.

The CCC report says lower condo sales 2008 are attributed to different economic factors like unsteadiness in the monetary markets, declining in credit and some financing options. At present 2,100 units in Downtown Memphis.  It has estimated residents of more than 27,000 and yearly growth rate of 7.3% in the Central Business Improvement District.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that during the rise of the Obama’s administration program to rescue troubled homeowners, several federal agencies are gathering up to battle mortgage and proceeding scams. $75 billion effort of the administration to help as many as 9 million mortgage holders get new or refinanced loans is drawing a lot of interest from homeowners, Treasury Department officials explained.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said,

Those who would seek to prey on the most vulnerable also seek to intensify their efforts as well, we will aggressively pursue those involved in mortgage rescue scams.

The Department of Justice, Treasury, The Department of Housing and Urban Development will be leading the effort from Washington. The State attorneys general will also be participating.