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| The Pending Home Sales Index increased 3.2 percent to 84.6 from a level of 82.0 in February.
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| Sales also up 1.1 percent higher than March 2008 when it was 83.7. NAR’s Housing Affordability Index2 remained near record highs. The affordability index was 166.7 in March – down from an upwardly revised record of 174.4 in February due to higher home prices in March. The index remains 30.8 percentage points higher than a year ago.
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| @ National Association of Realtors | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Most of Florida Association of Realtor’s 2009 legislative initiatives ended in victory
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The Legislature took bold steps toward strengthening the property insurance market, made it easier for property owners to challenge tax assessments and gave tax breaks to all non-homestead property owners, first-time buyers and military personnel serving overseas.
Editor's Comment: This is a good read
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| @ Florida Association of Realtors | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Construction spending during March 2009
was $969.7 billion, 0.3 percent above the revised February
estimate of $967.1 billion.
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| The March figure is 11.1 percent (±1.6%) below the March 2008 estimate of $1,090.5 billion. During the first 3 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $209.5 billion, 10.9 percent (±1.4%) below the
$235.2 billion for the same period in 2008.
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| @ U. S. Census Bureau | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Orlando-area lenders start to go easier on home defaults
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| Half of the foreclosures headed for court hearings in Orange County during March and April were canceled — an indication that lenders are suddenly willing to modify loans and avoid expensive legal action by mediating the growing number of mortgage-default cases.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Orlando-area new-home market could be on verge of bottoming out
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| If no new houses were to hit the Metro Orlando market for the rest of the year, it would take more than eight months to sell the ones already built but still vacant.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Home building in South Florida is 'dead' -- that's OK for now
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| New housing construction has all but stopped in South Florida -- leaving one of the region's major pools of employment bone dry -- as banks have cut off loans for new projects, builders worked to sell off existing homes and buyers largely sat on the sidelines.
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| @ Miami Herald | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Chicago industrial vacancies hit 17-year high at 11.1%
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| The vacancy rate for industrial real estate in the Chicago area rose for the sixth straight quarter as the worsening recession has stifled demand for manufacturing and warehouse space. The vacancy rate jumped to 11.1% in the first quarter, the highest level since 1992, and up sharply from 10.3% at the end of last year. The rate is 2 percentage points higher than a year ago when it was just 9.1%.
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| @ Crain's Chicago Real Estate Daily | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Where Home Prices Crashed Early, Signs of a Rebound
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| SACRAMENTO — Is this what a bottom looks like? This city was among the first in the nation to fall victim to the real estate collapse. Now it seems to be in the earliest stages of a recovery, a hopeful sign for an economy mired in trouble and anxiety. Investors and first-time buyers, the traditional harbingers of a housing rebound, are out in force here, competing for bargain-price foreclosures. With sales up 45 percent from last year, the vast backlog of inventory has diminished. Even prices, which have plummeted to levels not seen since the beginning of the decade, show evidence of stabilizing.
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| @ New York Times | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Split opens over length of downturn in UK.
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| Britain will suffer a deeper and longer recession than the government believes, the European Commission predicted on Monday, causing a predictable flurry of excitement among opposition politicians. Now the Commission has joined the International Monetary Fund and most independent economists in arguing that the Treasury has been over-optimistic in expecting a rapid rebound in growth at the end of the year.
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| @ Financial Times - UK | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0646 EDST
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| UK manufacturing contracted at slowest pace in eight months
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| The rate of decline of UK manufacturing activity eased significantly further in April, a closely-watched survey showed yesterday, boosting hopes that the deepest point of the recession is past and helping support the pound.
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| @ Glasgow Herald | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0655 EDST
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| Panama's president-elect to push U.S. trade deal
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| Finalizing a free-trade deal with the United States is a major goal for Panamanian President-elect Ricardo Martinelli, but the supermarket tycoon rejects U.S. accusations that the country is a tax haven. The U.S.-Panama trade pact was signed in June 2007 by Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, but the agreement has been stalled in the U.S. Congress over criticisms that Panama is an offshore tax haven for wealthy foreigners.
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| @ Reuters | Posted: 05/05/09 at 0652 EDST
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