I believe home buyers of Palos Verdes real estate are finally waking up. Blanche Evans in Realty Times has written that consumers have “been getting bad information” and goes on to explain that Robert Shiller (founder of the Case-Shiller Index) might just have an ulterior motive when he says that housing prices may drop further than 30% (as experienced in the Great Depression). Shiller “makes money when people buy housing hedge funds, licensed with data obtained through his company Macromarkets LLC.” Hmmm
My favorite quote from Evan’s article is, “When Shiller says home prices are going to fall 30 percent, not one reporter who covered the story asked this simple follow-up question: ‘Bob, during the worst part of the Great Depression, one in four people were out of work. Our unemployment rate is a little over 5 percent. So what’s going to drive home prices that low?”
Evans also gives kudos to Chris Plummer of MarketWatch for his story, “Home-price data has its flaws”. Finally the statistics are being challenged – and the recommendation given to look at each local market separately.
Preliminary market data for Palos Verdes single family residences for April indicate 37 sold (closed escrow) versus 33 for March. In April, 31 homes had sales pending versus 33 for March. Today there are 73 homes with sales pending! Spring has definitely sprung in Palos Verdes. The buyers are waking up to enjoy low interest rates and a larger inventory of homes for sale.
