Existing home sales in April rose in line with expectations. The National Association of Realtors said this morning that sales increased 2.9 percent last month compared to March and were down 3.5 percent from April 2008. Here in the West, sales rose 3.5 percent month-over-month and are 19.4 percent higher than a year ago. The inventory of homes for sale rose to a 10.2 supply, up from 9.6 months in March. "The gain in inventory is largely seasonal from sellers entering the spring market. Even with the rise, inventory over the past few months has remained consistently lower in comparison with a year earlier," said NAR chief economist lawrence Yun.
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A new report from Trulia.com and RealtyTrac finds that 55 percent of U.S. adults are at least somewhat likely to consider buying a foreclosed home, up from 47 percent in November. The segment between the ages of 18 and 44 are the most likely - 66 percent - to buy a foreclosed property.
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Although there is growing evidence that the residential real estate market is showing signs of stability, at least one person disagrees. Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners believes that the housing market won't bottom for quite a while. Of course, Tilson has a reason for being bearish. He's the author of a new book, "More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Times."
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Lost in all of the activity recently was a provision in the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, signed into law last week by President Obama. It extended the $250,000 insurance protection on FDIC-insured bank account until 2013. The new limit, which went into effect in October, was due to expire at the end of this year and return to $100,000 per account. The same insurance protect will apply to deposits at credit unions covered by the National Credit Union Administration.
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Higher oil prices are in the future, the distant future. The Energy Information Administration reports that rising global consumption will push crude prices to $110 a barrel in 2015 and $130 in 2030. The report forecasts that global demand will rise to nearly 107 million barrels a day by 2030. In the meantime, OPEC ministers are expected to announce tomorrow that they will leave current production levels unchanged.
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Never mind a kitchen blender or silver platter, more than half of the people getting married this year would like to receive consumer electronics. But not just any product. According to the new Retrevo gadgetology study, a camcorder is at the top of the list, followed by digital cameras. But, newlyweds don't want an iPod or other MP3 player. "Not only do most newlyweds already have an MP3 player, bit it's a gadget that tends to isolate the recipients rather than bring them together," said Andrew Eisner of Retrevo.
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