Blog - Greg Timms

Economical Updates, Real Estate News

Tough Sledding

Despite taking a dip in December, existing home sales still closed out 2016 as their best year since 2006. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that over the 12 months an estimated 5.45 million single-family houses, townhomes, condos, and cooperative apartments changed hands. This was 200,000 more units than sold in all of 2015 […]
Real Estate Activity, Real Estate News

JUST SOLD! 18724 Caminito Pasadero, San Diego 92128

Just Sold this gorgeous 3 bedroom model with loft office/study. Ideal location with privacy & garden views. Open kitchen with granite counter center island off family room with fireplace & lots of kitchen cabinets. Spacious living room with dining adjacent to it. Spacious master suite with walk-in closet, dual vanity & views. Sought after gated […]
Economical Updates, Real Estate News

Getting a Jump

Housing news this week was dominated by construction reports. Well, maybe dominated is too strong a word–there wasn’t much competition. A burst of enthusiasm on the part of homebuilders last month had carried the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) Housing Market Index to a 12-year high. NAHB said builder confidence moderated a bit this month; […]
Economical Updates, Real Estate News

More Than Half-Full

Two pieces of news dominated an otherwise slow week. Taking them in order of appearance, last Friday brought a very encouraging Employment Situation Report. Job creation in December was good, if not spectacular at 156,000 new non-farm jobs. There were also revisions to the October and November reports that added a total of 19,000 jobs […]

Economical Updates Tough Sledding Despite taking a dip in December, existing home sales still closed out 2016 as their best year since 2006. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that over the 12 months an estimated 5.45 million single-family houses, townhomes, condos, and cooperative apartments changed hands. This was 200,000 more units than sold in all of 2015 […]

Real Estate Activity JUST SOLD! 18724 Caminito Pasadero, San Diego 92128 Just Sold this gorgeous 3 bedroom model with loft office/study. Ideal location with privacy & garden views. Open kitchen with granite counter center island off family room with fireplace & lots of kitchen cabinets. Spacious living room with dining adjacent to it. Spacious master suite with walk-in closet, dual vanity & views. Sought after gated […]

Economical Updates Getting a Jump Housing news this week was dominated by construction reports. Well, maybe dominated is too strong a word–there wasn’t much competition. A burst of enthusiasm on the part of homebuilders last month had carried the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) Housing Market Index to a 12-year high. NAHB said builder confidence moderated a bit this month; […]

Economical Updates More Than Half-Full Two pieces of news dominated an otherwise slow week. Taking them in order of appearance, last Friday brought a very encouraging Employment Situation Report. Job creation in December was good, if not spectacular at 156,000 new non-farm jobs. There were also revisions to the October and November reports that added a total of 19,000 jobs […]

Economical Updates Playing Catch-Up The Old Year and our two-week break has left us with a lot of make-up work. While sales and pricing data dominated the usual end-of-month flood and was largely positive, the Census Bureau’s construction numbers took some of the edge off. The two backward looking reports on home sales–new, and existing–continued to show a strong […]

Real Estate Activity SOLD IN 7 DAYS! 8228 Station Village Ln 1512, San Diego 92108 Gorgeous 3rd floor corner unit with views. Freshly painted interior including baseboards & crown molding. New upgraded carpeting throughout. Private patio balcony off living room. Stainless steel appliances, breakfast nook, granite counters throughout kitchen & plenty of cabinets. Interior laundry room & open living room. Spacious master bedroom & 2nd bedroom. Two full baths with tubs. One […]

Economical Updates They Finally Did It! The Fed raised rates…and having done it, apparently may do it again. The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) ended their monthly meeting on Wednesday with an announcement of a quarter point increase in the federal funds rate. This brings the target for the overnight lending rate between banks–to a range of 0.5% to 0.75%. […]

Economical Updates Potent Cocktail November was another good month for jobs with 178,000 new ones created and unemployment dropping to 4.6%. The bad news was that after an encouraging 0.4% gain in October, average hourly wages dropped back by 0.1%. Flat wages are not hurting home prices–at least so far. They continue to defy forecasts of smaller increases. CoreLogic […]

Economical Updates Where to Begin It is rare indeed when we can report on new, existing, and pending home sales in one fell swoop but all three reports were issued while many of us were enjoying friends, family, turkey and pie. The data was mixed, and relatively flat, but then we are morphing into the holiday rather than the homebuying […]

Real Estate Activity JUST LISTED! 8228 Station Village Ln 1512, San Diego 92108 Gorgeous 3rd floor corner unit with views. Freshly painted interior including baseboards & crown molding. New upgraded carpeting throughout. Private patio balcony off living room. Stainless steel appliances, breakfast nook, granite counters throughout kitchen & plenty of cabinets. Interior laundry room & open living room. Spacious master bedroom & 2nd bedroom. Two full baths with tubs. One […]

Economical Updates Mortgage Rates Spike The bond market went a little crazy last week, and mortgage rates followed. By Monday of this week most lenders were quoting 4.0% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM). The market calmed a bit midweek, and by Thursday Freddie Mac reported a slight easing to 3.94 %. The speed of the increase was close to unprecedented. […]

Economical Updates Demand for Higher Loan Limits The Employment Situation report for October was a solid one again, with 161,000 new jobs, less than analysts’ consensus of 178, but in the mid-range of their estimates. The unemployment rate fell 0.1% to 4.9%, which Econoday says some consider full employment. Probably the sweetest data nugget however was average hourly earnings. They rose “an outsized” 0.4% […]

Economical Updates The Trump effect. How will it impact the US economy and housing? The American people have spoken and they have elected Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States. Change was clearly demanded, and change is what we will have. The election was a shock for many, especially on the West Coast where we have not been overly affected by the long-term loss in US […]

Economical Updates Rare and Endangered We have talked a lot about the dismal post-housing crash stats on homeownership. They hit the lowest level in Census Bureau history in the second quarter of this year, 63.1%. Well, surprise. They didn’t get any better in the third quarter. While the overall rate did rise to 63.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis, the […]

Economical Updates Behind The Headlines The headline was hopeful, “New home sales rise 3.1% in September,” but you know what they say about devils and details. New home sales were indeed up, but only because the August sales turned out to be even worse than first reported. Instead of the annual rate of 609,000 first announced, they were revised to […]

Real Estate Activity JUST LISTED! 18724 Caminito Pasadero, San Diego 92128 Just Listed this gorgeous 3 bedroom model with loft office/study. Ideal location with privacy & garden views. Open kitchen with granite counter center island off family room with fireplace & lots of kitchen cabinets. Spacious living room with dining adjacent to it. Spacious master suite with walk in closet, dual vanity & views. Sought after […]

Economical Updates Perhaps They’re Back Existing home sales rebounded after a two-month slump but the National Association of Realtors was even more excited by a second stat–the share of first-time homebuyers rose 3 percentage points to 34%, the highest since July 2012. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said, “The market fundamentals–primarily consistent job gains and affordable mortgage rates–are there for […]

Economical Updates Close Call The public always gets two doses of information about the monthly meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). As the meeting ends there is a press release and a statement from Fed Chair Janet Yellen then a few weeks later the release of the “Beige Book” with the official minutes. The immediate news out […]

Economical Updates Rent Relief Is the end of seemingly endless rent hikes at hand? Laura Kusisto reports in the Wall Street Journal that apartment rents have actually come down in some of the nation’s priciest cities this quarter, perhaps the first sign that the six-year boom in rents is ending. It is a tiny beginning–rents are down by 3% in San Francisco, 1% […]

Real Estate News JUST SOLD! 17738 Villamoura Drive, Poway 92064 Just SOLD this Stoneridge Chateau unit with an open floor plan on the golf course. Single story unit on ground floor. Study room off the living room. Breakfast nook,pantry, interior laundry closet & pass through to dining area. Tiled fireplace with raised hearth in living room, large master bedroom with dual closets & views of golf […]