CNN – Money posted this article yesterday, not sure how they came up with this and what data it is based on. I will let you be the judge it you feel CNN is accurate or not.

Click Here To View: America’s Most Overvalued Properties 

Lis Pendens filings are down in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Lis Pendens filings have been decreasing since the 4th quarter of ‘08 and both counties are at a 2 year low (Not taking into account the Paterson Foreclosure moratorium in the 4th quarter of ‘08) . This is the first place that we would see the signs of the market improving. Unfortunately we are still not out of rough water yet, until the economy and home prices stabilize we will continue to see are large amount of Lis Pendens filings each quarter. But all in all this is very good news.

The above map depicts the geographic distribution of house price risk for all 384 MSAs. Each MSA is assigned a risk rank and corresponding color. Among the 50 largest MSAs, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL ranks the highest on the index, with nearly a 100 percent chance that home prices will be lower in two years. At the other end of the risk spectrum lies a group of MSAs, largely located in the central and southern parts of the nation, whose risk scores are moderate to low.

There has been so much good news going on in the real estate market I hate being the bearer of bad news. This map was pulled out of the latest PMI Insurance report and it shows that the Long Island real estate market is going to experience additional decreases in home values.

I have been following this quarterly report for years and I have found it to have very accurate forecasts. Lets hope it is wrong this time.

If you would like to view the whole report follow the link below.

Click Here To View Report

With all the turmoil in the world economy interest rates are being pushed down to 1 year lows! It won’t last so find that house and lock in. These rates over time will save you thousands more then the $8,000 Homebuyer Credit.

Even though there is a lot of talk about bank owned properties we are still not seeing an increasing supply on Long Island… yet?

Some interesting changes happening in this charts. Could this also be early signs of a real estate market recovery?

No real trend change in Suffolk county, the percentage of home price sales is still increasing in the lower priced categories.

Nassau county is not showing any real change in the lower price categories but there seems to be a lot more activity in the upper price categories.

Queens county is showing the same trends as Nassau, could this be early signs of an economic recovery? Both Nassau & Queens counties have a larger economy then Suffolk so it would only make common sense that they would start to recover from this recession first. Only time will tell.

No real change here nor does there seems to be a trend developing. With all the talk about bank foreclosures you would think that that distressed sales would account for a higher percentage of sales.

Below is an excerpt for a post I did awhile ago called “What Cause’s Real Estate to Appreciate” Click on the title to see full post.

Interest Rates:
A one percent change in the mortgage financing rate can change the value of real estate by as much as 10%

A $300,000 mortgage financed at 5% for 30 years costs 1610.46 (Principle and interest)

So a monthly mortgage payment of 1610.46 at 6% for 30 years gives you a mortgage of $268,611.22 or 10% less.

“For many reasons, the rebound will be disproportionately small compared to the decline,” Moody’s said this week in its
latest outlook on the residential market. “It will take more than a decade to completely recover from the 40% peak-to trough decline in national home prices.”

The housing market is in the third year of the current downturn, one of the worst corrections in U.S. history as a result of the economic recession and the mortgage industry nearly grinding to a halt during the credit crunch.

Moody’s predicted home prices “will remain at a persistently lower level than we anticipated prior to the crisis, and it
will take a full decade from the 2010 bottom just for the [Case-Shiller] national index to climb back to its 2006 peak.”

Full story can be found here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-wont-regain-peak-this-decade-moodys-2009-09-18

Harvard University puts together a great publication each year called “The State Of The Nation’s Housing 2009”. I created this chart from the 2009 publication showing the highs, lows and recovery period between them during past cycles. As you can see it takes 9 to 10 years for a property to be worth the same as it was from the previous peak. The current cycle had a much longer appreciation cycle then it had in past cycles so it is only common sense that it will take longer to recover. If any homeowners are thinking that they will just wait until the market prices increase they may have to wait quite a bitter longer. The interesting thing is, even if they do wait till the prices appreciate technically the property is not worth more, the value increased because the dollar is worth less! If you need to sell, sell now and take advantage of the low interest rates.