Sunday, December 02, 2007

California Real Estate Troubles

The stock market starts a new month with a bit of a rally just behind it. The current situation is giving a little time for the bulls to gather some steam for one last push. We think this should be a move that takes the Dow back up to around 13,750 give or take...

The next ten days have the possibility of a little volatility due to the position we find the market in currently. The first week of the month has the employment report on Friday and then there is the FOMC meeting next week on the 11th. With the market set up for a rally to relieve the extreme oversold condition the market was in the last couple of weeks.

The WSJ has another front page article, Monday, that talks about the higher credit score borrowers that decided to take out subprime mortgages for whatever reason. We recommend the article for your Monday reading. The article does suggest that with some of these higher credit score borrowers in the mix there might not be as much damage created by interest resets over the next few years. There are other interpretations.

The housing market is in a difficult situation and California seems to be the center of it. The Prudent Bear's Doug Noland shows the drop in the median price of a California home has dropped... from the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R): "Home sales decreased 40.2% in October in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 9.9%... 'Financing issues have dogged entry-level buyers since early 2007, but they spilled over into the middle and upper-tier markets in the last few months,' said C.A.R. President William E. Brown. 'The decline in sales at the upper end of the market contributed to a significant decline in the statewide median price as even well-qualified borrowers had difficulty securing financing.'”

Mr. Noland points out that...California's statewide median price was down $33,720 to $497,110, putting the two-month decline at a remarkable $91,860. The month's supply of home inventories was down slightly from September to 16.3 months, this compares, however, to the year ago 6.4 months.

FSI: 104.84

No comments: