bizjournals: What's next for housing: A national wrap-up

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Economists say it may take longer to sell your and you may not be able to ramp up pricesw as much as in the past few And there aresigns that' s happening in some metropolitan areas. "It'd not too late to get a good sale, but I thinki you're going to wait longer," said economist Mark executive director of Investment U and a professort atColumbia University. But in many prices are still on their way up and saless are stillchugging along. Even one of the worst naturap disastersin U.S.
history seems likely to add fuel to the the National Association of Realtors said last The organization expects record sales this year sparked in part by rebuildingh and relocations resulting fromHurricane Katrina, even as the stormk drives up the cost of construction and and takes a bite out of the Nationwide, the NAR is expecting existing home sales to increase 3.4 percentf to 7.02 million in 2005. New home sales are expectedx torise 6.7 percent to 1.28 The national median home pricw is expected to rise to Of course, the housinfg market depends on location, location. The reports strong residential real estate with softening in some mainly inthe Midwest.
That's what business journals acrosz the countryare seeing. and the are red hot, thoughh there have been some signws of a bubble in scorchinfgSouth Florida. cities outside Florid a saw growth continue at asteady pace. and the continu e to set record prices, even as the time it takew to sell a house stretches insome markets. The is stillk a healthy place to sella house. And in , propertgy is still both pricey and easy to Inthe , thing s are stable mostly Phoenix was near the top of the natiojn for the first half of the year for annua increases in median existing home prices, the Phoenix Business Journao reports.
And it's just the kind of market whered , or at least hold even if there is an overall downturh in the realestate market, local economists told the busineszs journal. That's because Phoenix's population continues to "For example, population growth varies from stateto state, with statez in the Sunbelt attracting new residents from otherr states," said Lee McPheters, contributing editor to Arizonw Blue Chip Magazine. "It is reasonable to expect faster-growinhg states such as Arizona and Nevada to continues to see strongerhousing markets." Or, as locak expert Jay Brown "As a state, we're hot." In the market's getting stronger.
A slump in the earlu 2000s is easing and realtors expect the market to appreciater by about 3 percentthis year, the Denver Businesz Journal reports. "I do think it'z very safe to say we are seeinvg stronger home appreciation from last saidPatty Silverstein, an economist and presiden of Development Research Partners, told the . Hawaii: those bubbles are champagned dreamsFlorida markets, too, have seen heat in the housinhg market, even after being pummeled by hurricanes in 2004. "Floridqa is just rampant," said National Association of Realtors economisyLawrence Yun.
That's thanks in large part to baby approaching retirement and the search for a place in the sun by folkxs from priceyNortheastern markets. But even Florida's silvef linings show touches of gray. In the median sale price for an existing home shotto $245,000 in July from $180,000p in July 2004. And the time on the market for an existinf home decreased to 27 days in July from 47 days in The heatin Orlando'zs housing market, though, is on the high end of the reports that existing home saleas have leveled off in Disney World's But sales of housex priced more than $500,000o are zooming like Spacr Mountain, up 86 percent for the first seven months of compared to the same period last year.
Sales of homews priced $140,000 to $299,9909 fell 11 percent. "It's all about price Lydia Pisano, president of ORRA and an ageng with Keller Williamsin Hunter's Creek, told the Orland Business Journal. "Homes that sold for $1 million aboutg five years ago are probably up toabouyt $2.5 million today." In , the mediam price rose more than 30 percent to $217,400 in July from $167,50 last year and houses were sittinfg on the market 32 days at the end of But those , along with trends toward converting apartments to condominiums are putting the squeeze on many would-bes residents, the business journal reports. In Southh Florida, the market is blazing.
More than 7,50o condo conversion units are on the market or are expecte d in the next couple Many of those unita are being bought by speculators who will sell them beforr they ever moveinto them. But in the some are voicing concern over the pace of condo Jack McCabe, an expert in the told the , "Multi-family property owner s see it as the likely end of the gold rush and want to cash Others, though, just don' see it. They say many of the in the Soutu Florida market areforeigners -- and all those investorsx are buying like crazy. "I've been here 30 year s and I've never seen a marketf like this," said Ron Shuffield, presidengt of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell.