USA Real Estate Market

Among numerous predictions made, the visiting presenter said local real estate agents were going to face many obstacles in the coming year. But sales could be made if the price was right.
“The recovery in every recession since 1949 has been led by a recovery in the housing market,” Jones said, adding that, so far, no real estate recovery is in sight. “It's going to be a tough year, isn't it?”
Most attendees nodded when Jones asked them if they agreed with his assessment. 

Since peaking in the first half of 2008, Manhattan apartment prices have fallen an average of 25 percent to 30 percent.
The Manhattan residential real estate market had been largely unscathed during 2008 as other US housing markets were floundering, but it hit a wall in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial sector fell to its knees. 

Property sales to foreign buyers dropped 9.4% in the year ending in May to 154,000, according to the NAR report.
Lack of finance and banks continuing to be tight about credit could be one reason, the report says. Of those who did purchase, almost half paid cash for their property because securing a mortgage was more difficult than before, according to the report.
‘It's at least three times more difficult for foreign buyers to get financing than it is for US citizens who have all the right documentation and good credit,’ said Madison Hildebrand, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent in Malibu, California.

House prices will fall just 3% more before stabilizing, giving an overall fall of 33% from their peak in the middle of 2006, based on median forecasts, it shows.
About a third of economist polled, 13 out of the 41 that took part, said that they believe a trough has already been reached.

The market peaked in the second half of 2004 and bottomed out in the second half of 2008. It’s become a buyer’s market. There are low interest rates, a more diverse economy and an influx of money from overseas investors. Prices are close to the bottom, and they should get a boost when mortgage financing returns this spring. 

"NAR estimates that between 150,000 and 190,000 homes were sold to foreign nationals from May 2007 to May 2008," according to the NAR press release on the findings. "Recent foreign buyers purchased properties in every state and the District of Columbia. The most popular states where international buyers purchased homes are Florida, California and Texas. Arizona, New York, Washington and Nevada were also popular."