Is It Bottom Yet? … and much more…
This week’s Top of the TweetsBy Camilla McLaughlin
Luxury buzz amped up last week with the release of the annual Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report. The big news — luxury is booming in Asia — shouldn’t surprise anyone who follows global real estate. For the first time, Asia had more millionaires than Europe. North America still retains the top spot in this competition but the Asia-Pacific region, which posted a 9.7-percent gain over 2010 in the number of high-net-worth individuals, is outpacing both North America and Europe in terms of growth. The U.S., Japan and Germany still account for just over half of the wealthy, while China is in fourth place. The global population of what the report classifies as “ultra-high-net-worth individuals” grew by 10 percent and its wealth by 11.5 percent, in 2010. http://bit.ly/iv44iI
Is it the bottom yet? For housing in the U.S., it sometimes feels like we are 10-year-olds on a never-ending road trip. There is still a ways to go before we discover what “normal” will be, but there are signs we may finally have reached the bottom. Among 108 economists surveyed by Robert Shiller’s MacroMarkets, a majority believe home prices hit bottom in the first quarter or will do so by the end of 2011. Even though expectations in the June Home Price Expectation Survey reached their lowest levels since this panel was assembled over a year ago, Shiller says, “Almost two-thirds of the panelists see the U.S. residential real estate market as at an historic turning point.” In line with prevailing long-term forecasts, most expect very little appreciation — in the 2-percent-per-year range — though 2015.
Case Shiller isn’t the only index. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) also tracks prices and the most recent index shows prices increasing by 0.8 percent in April, the first increase in a year. Thanks to @reallyearllee, @DSNews and others for the heads up.
Also out last week, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School released their annual report on the state of the nation’s housing. http://t.co/kHQf2pF
Delinquencies on the decline? The shadow inventory of homes in the foreclosure process continues to shrink as more foreclosed homes sell and delinquencies declined in April, according to CoreLogic, a Santa Barbara, Calif. real estate information company. http://bit.ly/moADU0 (image is courtesy CoreLogic)
@NAR_Research graphs the latest, including a state-by-state overview, on mortgage delinquencies. http://bit.ly/kdZ4TG
Could things be looking up in The Golden State? Pending sales in California rose for the first time in one and a half years, according to data released by the California Association of Realtors. The number of pending deals rose 12 percent last month compared to May 2010. Seattle luxury home sales rose last year but, according to new outlet Seattlepi.com, prices remain soft. http://ow.ly/5ahNs
Homeownership under siege. The battle over the mortgage interest deduction continues but most consumers still believe homeownership is worthwhile. Three out of four voters believe it is reasonable for the federal government to provide tax incentives to promote homeownership, according to a recent poll conducted on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders. Also, the survey shows, 71 percent of voters oppose proposals to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction and 63 percent oppose efforts to reduce it. In a separate survey conducted by Fannie Mae in the first quarter of 2011, 74 percent of renters say owning a home makes more financial sense than renting.
Another positive: Approximately 61 percent of the companies surveyed by Brookfield Global Relocation Services for their annual global trends report expect the number of international assignments to increase this year. http://bit.ly/msLlTH An emerging obstacle to international assignments is employment for expat spouses as this recent New York Times article details. http://nyti.ms/iJzr2X A tip of the tweets hat to @SilerandCompany for the link.
The new rules of restaurants? Josh Ozersky, the James Beard-award-winning food writer, gives his take in a rant, “Is it O.K. to eat while texting?”via @time. http://ti.me/kUxo6j
Beware of trap doors: One of the best quotes I’ve seen in awhile comes from John Dickerson, @jdickerson, at Slate magazine, “When one door closes another door opens. But if it’s a trap door you’re pretty much out of luck.”
“What the rich are reading this summer” headlines Robert Frank, @WSJWealthReport, in a tweet linking to a recent Wall Street Journal article on J.P. Morgan’s summer reading list for their private bank clients. I’ve already got Henry Kissinger’s book on my Kindle but plan to check out a few of the others. http://on.wsj.com/mrLGM7
Celebrating the solstice — summer’s here and @neiltyson tells us how things get hot. “So, Sun’s visible light doesn’t heat air, it heats ground. Ground then re-radiates IR, which heats the air.” And, “For every day of summer there’s a matching day in spring with same hours of daylight.”
