Hitwise Ranks remax.com No. 2 on Quarterly Top 10 List

Hitwise Ranks remax.com No. 2 on Quarterly Top 10 List

Based on share of visits among all U.S. Web sites in the "Business and Finance - Real Estate" category, remax.com is a Hitwise Top 10 Award winner at No. 2 for the quarter ending March 2008.

The Hitwise Top 10 Award recognizes Web sites from over 160 industries that are leaders in their field.

In March alone, remax.com received nearly 6 million hits. About half of them were direct, which means 3 million hits came from top-of-mind brand recall and consumers typing in "remax.com" to access the Web site.

Continuing efforts to increase visibility of remax.com through TV, print and radio ads, plus Search Engine Marketing strategies, put remax.com into the second-place position ahead of competitors such as homegain.com, realestate.com, century21.com and coldwellbanker.com.
(Source: Carat and iProspect Monthly Report - April 2008.)

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West Valley Home Resales Rise As Prices Are Slashed

West Valley Home Resales Rise As Prices Are Slashed

Home sellers in the West Valley have slashed their asking prices up to 30 percent since February, and the price cuts are spurring sales in Surprise, El Mirage and Goodyear, according to a report from Arizona State University.

Though home resale activity has dropped in Glendale, Peoria and Avondale, it is only because fewer homes are for sale in those communities, since they have more established economies and infrastructures and less housing turnover, said Jay Butler, director of realty studies at ASU's Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness.

The ASU report measured the Valley's home resale activity from February to March. The school is expected to release April sales figures later this month.

In the West Valley, resale figures show that home values in the newest West Valley communities are still correcting, where as values in the more established municipalities closer to metro Phoenix have become more stable, Butler said.

"You really got two sets of communities: Glendale and Peoria are older, more mature communities. And then, there are the new ones under development like Surprise, El Mirage to some degree, and Goodyear . . . those are the ones that really got hit hard (by the housing slowdown)," he said.

The steep price drops in those newer communities have revived buyer interest, however.

Butler said that investors are once again purchasing homes in those areas, as are new snowbirds.

When looking to buy or sell your West Valley area home, call the experts at Re/Max Desert Showcase. Speak To A Professional RE/MAX Phoenix Realtor NOW....Call : 623-979-8888

The Housing Crisis is Over -- Wall Street Journal

The Housing Crisis is Over -- Wall Street Journal

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005.

New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50%, and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.

Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability.

The boom made housing unaffordable for many American families, especially first-time home buyers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, it took 19% of average monthly income to service a conforming mortgage on the average home purchased. By 2005 and 2006, it was absorbing 25% of monthly income. For first time buyers, it went from 29% of income to 37%. That just proved to be too much.

Prices got so high that people who intended to actually live in the houses they purchased (as opposed to speculators) stopped buying. This caused the bubble to burst.

Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in.

The next question is: Even if home sales pick up, how can home prices stop falling with so many houses vacant and unsold? The flip but true answer: because they always do.

In the past five major housing market corrections (and there were some big ones, such as in the early 1980s when home sales also fell by 50%-60% and prices fell 12%-15% in real terms), every time home sales bottomed, the pace of house-price declines halved within one or two months.

The explanation is that by the time home sales stop declining, inventories of unsold homes have usually already started falling in absolute terms and begin to peak out in "months of supply" terms. That's the case right now: New home inventories peaked at 598,000 homes in July 2006, and stand at 482,000 homes as of the end of March. This inventory is equivalent to 11 months of supply, a 25-year high -- but it is similar to 1974, 1982 and 1991 levels, which saw a subsequent slowing in home-price declines within the next six months.

Inventories are declining because construction activity has been falling for such a long time that home completions are now just about undershooting new home sales. In a few months, completions of new homes for sale could be undershooting new home sales by 50,000-100,000 annually.

Inventories will drop even faster to 400,000 -- or seven months of supply -- by the end of 2008.

This shift in inventories will have a significant impact on prices, although house prices won't stop falling entirely until inventories reach five months of supply sometime in 2009. A five-month supply has historically signaled tightness in the housing market.

Many pundits claim that house prices need to fall another 30% to bring them back in line with where they've been historically. This is usually based on an analysis of house prices adjusted for inflation: Real house prices are 30% above their 40-year, inflation-adjusted average, so they must fall 30%. This simplistic analysis is appealing on the surface, but is flawed for a variety of reasons.

Most importantly, it neglects the fact that a great majority of Americans buy their houses with mortgages.

And if one buys a house with a mortgage, the most important factor in deciding what to pay for the house is how much of one's income is required to be able to make the mortgage payments on the house. Today the rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 5.7%. Back in 1981, the rate hit 18.5%. Comparing today's house prices to the 1970s or 1980s, when mortgage rates were stratospheric, is misguided and misleading.

This is all good news for the broader economy. The housing bust has been subtracting a full percentage point from GDP for almost two years now, which is very large for a sector that represents less than 5% of economic activity.

When the rate of house-price declines halves, there will be a wholesale shift in markets' perceptions. All of a sudden, the expected value of the collateral (i.e. houses) for much of the lending that went on for the past decade will change. Right now, when valuing the collateral, market participants including banks are extrapolating the current pace of house price declines for another two to three years; this has a significant impact on the amount of delinquencies, foreclosures and credit losses that lenders are expected to face.

More home sales and smaller price declines means fewer homeowners will be underwater on their mortgages. They will thus have less incentive to walk away and opt for foreclosure.

A milder house-price decline scenario could lead to increases in the market value of a lot of the securitized mortgages that have been responsible for $300 billion of write-downs in the past year.

Even if write-backs do not occur, stabilizing collateral values will have a huge impact on the markets' perception of risk related to housing, the financial system, and the economy.

We are of course experiencing a serious housing bust, with serious economic consequences that are still unfolding. The odds are that the reverberations will lead to sub-trend growth for a couple of years.

Nonetheless, housing led us into this credit crisis and this recession. It is likely to lead us out. And that process is underway, right now.

Source: Wall Street Journal, By Cyril Moulle-Berteaux

May 6, 2008 Mr. Moulle-Berteaux is managing partner of Traxis Partners LP, a hedge fund firm based in New York.

Widespread RE/MAX Report Examines Affordability in Canada

Widespread RE/MAX Report Examines Affordability in Canada

A new report from RE/MAX of Western Canada and RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic is making waves.

The region's RE/MAX Affordability Report, which found that first-time buyers remain steadfast in their determination to buy a home despite home-buying activity slowing in Canada, received widespread attention in the Canadian news media.

The report, which was released across the country, was quoted in several of the nation's leading newspapers, such as the Globe and Mail, the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix and the Province, among others. Various radio and television stations and 23 Web sites also mentioned the report.

In all, 5.5 million consumers were exposed to the message.

While higher housing values and tight inventory levels have hampered home-buying activity so far this year, longer amortization periods and alternative housing types have offset the impact on most major markets across the country, according to the report.

The Globe and Mail referenced the RE/MAX report in the opening paragraphs of its story, "Legions of first-timers are adding years of extra mortgage payments so they can buy a house, or putting little or no money into a down payment."

The report reveals that despite a higher degree of frustration in the marketplace than in previous years, first-time buyers are resolute in their quest to buy a home. In fact, entry-level purchasers are adjusting their expectations by sacrificing size, location, and even long-term financial freedom, to overcome challenges such as rising prices and serious supply issues.

First-time purchasers continue to play a pivotal role at both the local and national levels. The impact they have on the housing market is significant, as they are the impetus for sales in the mid-to-upper price ranges. As long as this segment of the market remains healthy, the real estate outlook will continue to be favorable. It is a great time to buy in Sunny Arizona!
Copyright © 2008 RE/MAX International Inc. 5/1/08

All Canadian Buyers, please contact RE/MAX Desert Showcase today to inquire about Arizona Properties! 623-979-8888

Instant Profits Run Bill Poulos Live Free Web Seminar

Instant Profits Run Bill Poulos Live Free Web Seminar - Limited Space Avaliable For May 9, 2008

34 year trading 'vet' spills the beans on Thursday...Worried about a portfolio 'wipeout'? Watch this...Emergency trading web-seminar (#1 tip revealed)...

I seriously hope we're not too late but we just got wind of this...

Someone convinced 30 yr. trading veteran Bill Poulos to spill the beans to a small group of traders in a LIVE web seminar, for NOTHING!

If you don't know Bill, he's one of the most well-respected names in trading education circles for teaching methods he himself uses and for his dedication to making his students better traders.

And since the release of his recent consumer trading guide, The Profit Button, Bill's been getting hammered with tons of questions about the somewhat controversial findings in the guide...

* So, he decided to go LIVE on Thursday, May 9th at 9pm Eastern (New York Time) on a special one-time web-seminar where he'll address all the controversy and also reveal the #1 trading secret to his simple but highly effective trading method (which is NOT in the report)... Click here to reserve your space!!!

Limited Registrations Available...
"In Just 60 Minutes, You Could Gain A Lifetime Of 'Time-Tested' Trading Knowledge, Straight From The Mouth Of A 30+ Year Veteran... If You Register Quickly Enough..."

...this secret is the ONE thing too many traders IGNORE, and it can often result in a complete portfolio wipeout! You won't want to miss this, so, reserve your spot now: Click here to reserve your space!!! (That will give you the private password to the web-seminar.)

If you can get in, you'll also discover:

** The 4 simple steps successful traders know that you don't...

** How to maximize your profit potential in any market...

** How to evaluate any trading method to see if it has a "Winnin.g Edge" (and why you should abandon it immediately if it doesn't)...

** How a simple formula that an 8th grader could solve can determine the profitability of any trading method...

** ...and, you can also take part in a rare, live Q&A with Bill...

This exclusive, live event is Thursday, May 8th at 9PM Eastern Time.

...BUT...

There is extremely limited "seating" for this event because the virtual seminar room can only hold so many traders. Honestly, registration may already be locked out (depending on when you get this message), but give it a try here:

Click here to reserve your FREE Instant Profits Run Webinar space!!!

If you've been wondering why some traders have success in the markets, while others continue to flounder again and again, this could be one of your best chances to get your trading "fixed"
once and for all.

About The Presenter Bill Poulos

Bill Poulos has been trading the markets since 1974. He's a retired automotive executive who holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, and a Master's degree in Business Administration, with a major in Finance.

In his over 30 years of trading experience, Bill has developed dozens of trading systems and methods. In 2001, he formed Profits Run, Inc. to impart his trading experience and wisdom to others so they could shortcut their learning curve and ultimately potentially skyrocket their earnings in the markets.

Bill now has thousands of students all around the world, from all walks of life, and at all experience levels. He prides himself on providing honest and realistic trading education, and is known for the continuous and ongoing support and follow-up he offers his students.

His partner in Profits Run is his son, Greg, who is responsible for marketing and all technical support. In addition, Bill also has a full-time operations staff to ensure his trading education is delivered and supported in a high-quality and timely manner.

Good Trading