Lake Tahoe Real Estate - Alpine Meadows

2004 RECORD YEAR FOR CALIFORNIA HOUSING MARKET The California residential real estate market in 2004 was one for the record books, according to C.A.R. Home sales for 2004 are projected to increase 3 percent over 2003's record sales figure of 601,800 existing detached homes, even with December's housing market statistics unavailable until later this month. The annual median sales price of an existing single-family home will exceed $450,000, 22 percent higher than the 2003 annual median of $372,700. Additionally, C.A.R.'s Housing Affordability Index (HAI) fell to 19 percent in May, the first time the index has hit the teens since December 1989. Since that time, rapid price appreciation and marginally lower interest rates have generally offset each other, keeping the HAI in the 18- to 19-percent range throughout the summer and fall of this year. If not for unexpectedly low interest rates throughout much of the year, price appreciation might have driven the HAI to historically low levels that were last seen in May/June 1989 (14 percent). For more market highlights from 2004.

REAL ESTATE CONSTRUCTION SPENDING TOPS $1 TRILLION Construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,013.3 billion in November 2004, 0.4 percent below the revised October estimate of $1,016.9 billion, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday. November was the fifth consecutive month where the projected rate of construction spending topped $1 trillion. Total spending on private residential construction was estimated at $554.7 billion, down 0.4 percent from October and up 10 percent from one year earlier. Spending on total private construction was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $777.1 billion.

HUD RAISES REAL ESTATE LOAN LIMITS The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has increased its single-family home mortgage limits by more than 7 percent from last year, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced earlier this week. Effective Jan. 1, 2005, FHA will insure single-family home mortgages up to $172,632 in low-cost areas and up to $312,895 in high-cost areas. The new loan limits are a part of an annual adjustment HUD makes to account for rising home prices. The loan limits in 2004 were $160,176 in low cost-areas and $290,319 in high-cost areas. "These higher loan limits will help the FHA mortgage insurance program keep pace with the strong housing market while contributing to the Bush Administration's commitment to create 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade," said Alphonso Jackson, secretary of HUD. "The new limits will help create more construction, more jobs, and more economic growth, while increasing homeownership."

U.S. HOME SALES HIT RECORD IN NOVEMBER Sales of existing single-family homes in the U.S. increased 2.7 percent in November 2004 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.94 million units, NAR recently reported. The monthly sales pace was 13.2 percent above the 6.13-million unit level in November 2003 and marks the highest monthly sales pace on record. The previous record was 6.92 million units in June 2004. There were a total of 2.48 million existing homes available for sale at the end of November, which represents a 4.3-month supply at the current sales pace. Regionally, the West experienced the greatest increase in home resale activity, with sales jumping 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 1.97 million units in November. Existing-home sales also rose in the South and Midwest, with sales increasing 1.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. The Northeast was the only region to experience a decline in existing-home sales, where sales fell 1.3 percent.

Information provied by C.A.R. Newsline is published by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, a trade association representing more than 155,000 REALTORS® statewide.