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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Existing Home Sales Tumble 2.6% in June
Associated Press
WASHINGTON--Sales of existing homes fell more sharply than expected in June as the housing industry continued to be bruised by the worst slump in more than two decades.
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales dropped by 2.6% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units. That was more than double the decline that had been expected and left sales 15.5% below where they were a year ago.
The downward slide in sales depressed prices, too. The median price for a home sold in June dropped to $215,100, down by 6.1% from a year ago. That was the fifth largest year-over-year price drop on record.
The drop in sales pushed inventories of unsold single-family homes and condominiums to 4.49 million units, up by 0.2%.
That represented a 11.1 month supply at the June sales pace, the second highest level in the past 24 years.
Sales were down in all regions of the country except the West, which posted a 1% sales increase. Sales fell by 6.6% in the Northeast, 3.4% in the Midwest and 3.1% in the South.
Analysts said that until the inventory level is reduced to more normal levels, the slump in housing is likely to persist. The inventory level is being driven higher by a massive wave of mortgage foreclosures, however.
Seeking to address the housing crisis, Congress is moving to pass a sweeping package of rescue measures. The plan includes support to keep as many as 400,000 homeowners from losing their homes to foreclosure and a federal lifeline to bolster troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The House passed the bill Wednesday and the Senate is expected to pass the proposal in coming days, sending it to President Bush. The president has dropped a threatened veto over a portion of the bill.
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Not everyone has the financial ability to own and rent out multiple houses for extra income. And even fewer people want to deal with late night calls from tenants crying about their broken oil burner. Well, thanks to real estate investment trusts, or REITs, you don't have to deal with the stresses of being a landlord to make money off of the real estate market.
A REIT is any entity that pools money from a group of investors to buy different kinds of real estate or real-estate-related assets, such as buildings or mortgages on buildings. It uses the income from rent and loan interest to pay out a steady monthly dividend to its investors.
There are three types of REITs. The most common one is an equity REIT, which simply buys buildings and generates revenue from the rent it charges. Mortgage REITs loan out money to owners of real estate for mortgages or buy existing mortgages to collect interest, which is then paid out to the REIT's investors. Finally, there are hybrid REITs, which are a combination of mortgage and equity REITs.
REITs can be public or private. Public REITs are bought and sold just like stocks and are listed on exchanges, while private REITs can only be bought through direct-participation programs. With private REITs, the investors are actually part owners of the real estate rather than just shareholders of the REIT corporation. They can't sell shares and they typically have to keep their money tied up for eight to 12 years. However, there's the benefit of less volatility since the market can influence public REITs.
One potential drawback to REITs is how they are taxed. While qualifying equity dividends are normally subject to only a maximum of 15%, the dividends from REITs are taxed as regular income, which could be much higher -- depending on how much money you make.
