Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Pinellas Home Sales Soar

Pinellas County home and condo sales jumped 29 percent in December.

Closings for single-family homes jumped to 754 in December from 586 in December 2009, according to figures released by the Pinellas Realtor Organization.

When combining condo sales with single-family home sales, closings jumped 24 percent last month compared to one year ago.

Source: St Petersburg Times

Monday, January 3, 2011

Buy vs. Rent: An Update

NY Times by DAVID LEONHARDT

Below is an updated list of rent ratios — the price of a typical home divided by the annual cost of renting that home — for 55 metropolitan areas across the country.

A good rule of thumb is that you should often buy when the ratio is below 15 and rent when the ratio is above 20. If it’s between 15 and 20, lean toward renting — unless you find a home you really like and expect to stay there for many years.

Metro area

Ratio

East Bay, Calif.

35.9

Honolulu

34.4

San Jose, Calif.

32.7

San Francisco

27.9

Seattle

27.3

Charlotte, N.C.

27

Orange County, Calif.

27

New York (Manhattan)

26.7

Raleigh, N.C.

26.2

Portland, Ore.

25.9

North – Central New Jersey

25.2

Nashville

24

Denver

22.6

San Diego

22.1

Long Island, N.Y.

21.4

Milwaukee

21.4

Austin, Tex.

20.5

Norfolk, Va.

19.9

Richmond

19.7

Memphis

19.3

Bridgeport, Conn.

18.5

Hartford

18.4

Boston

18.4

Washington – Northern Virginia – Maryland

18.3

Oklahoma City

18.2

Baltimore

17.6

Columbus, Ohio

17.6

Palm Beach County, Fla.

17.6

Salt Lake City

17.6

Sacramento

16.7

San Antonio

16.7

Chicago

16.6

New Orleans

16.2

Philadelphia

16.1

Houston

15.9

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

15.7

Miami

15.6

New York

15.4

Los Angeles

15.4

Kansas City, Kan.

15.3

Inland Empire, Calif.

15.1

National average for metro areas

15.1

Indianapolis

15.1

Jacksonville, Fla.

15

Minneapolis

14.9

St. Louis

14.6

Las Vegas

14.3

Atlanta

14.3

Orlando, Fla.

14.1

Tampa Bay, Fla.

14

Cincinnati

13.9

Dallas – Fort Worth

13.8

Phoenix

13.3

Detroit

12.4

Cleveland

11.7

Pittsburgh

11.4

It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. The country has suffered through a terrible crash in home prices, yet buying iffy in many markets.

The data comes from Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics and covers the second quarter of this year. Home prices haven’t changed very much since then, so I would expect ratios in most places to be quite close to the numbers you see here.

December 22, 2010, 11:01 am