By B.P.T., on February 11th, 2011
The federal government released its long awaited plan for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae today, where it announced that it plans to wind down the two companies by slowly increasing their guarantee fees, reducing the maximum amount of money that they can lend on a home, and selling off their existing loans at a rate of about 10% per year. These changes, combined with increasing interest rates, are expected to have a negative impact on housing prices, so here is a look at a few high end markets that could see the greatest impact from the end of Fannie and Freddie:
Maui: Maui’s real estate market is still recovering from a decade long bubble as housing prices continue to decline, and are expected to show further weakness throughout 2011. There is hope for an improvement in the Maui real estate market in 2012, but average home prices that are significantly above the national average, continued weakness in the tourism sector, and the large number of vacation homes in the market could continue to hold prices down.
Manhattan: Home prices in Manhattan appear to be stabilizing and even improving as condo prices increased between 7.5% and 14% in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the previous year. This gain was attributed to the rebound in the financial services market, which added jobs over the last year and saw the stock market continue to post gains, but high prices and tighter lending standards are expected to keep prices from rising too quickly.
Washington DC: Home sales in the nation’s capital showed a strong gain in January, with sales volume up 31% over a year ago, and home prices up 7.5% compared to January 2010. Despite having some of the most expensive housing in the country, Washington area home sales have continued to show strength as the area’s economy remains strong.
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By Eldon Mast, on May 25th, 2010
Jobless rates fell in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia last month, according to government data released Friday. It was the marking first regionwide decline in unemployment rates since the recession of 2009.
According to the April data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington D.C., experienced the most dramatic drop in April’s measure, falling to 11% from 11.5% in March. Maryland’s unemployment rate fell to 7.5% from 7.7% and Virginia’s fell to 7.2% from 7.3%.
Many economists over the weekend agreed that the data reflected a real drop in joblessness and that it underscores ongoing evidence of a sustained recovery cycle.
“This is the first time all three [unemployment rates] declined in tandem,” said Sara Kline, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The labor force has been growing for the last couple of months and there’s been a downtick in unemployment.”
According to the Washington Post, a survey conducted in April among recruiters in the District, Maryland and Virginia, showed a dramatic increase in hiring in the first quarter. “To see four straight months of unemployment going down and over-the-year job growth — these trends are going in the right direction,” said Joseph P. Walsh Jr., director of an employment services agency in the region.
“Things certainly are headed in the right direction,” said Eric M. Seleznow, executive director of the Maryland Governor’s Workforce Investment Board.
In Virginia, more than 28,000 jobs were added, 14,100 of them in Northern Virginia. “It was an encouraging month,” said Ann D. Lang, senior economist at the Virginia Employment Commission.
The growing strength of the job market continues the positive trend nationally that we’ve been tracking here for over a year now — a trend that now appears quite likely to be only a few months away from netting the U.S. economy 500,000 new jobs per month.
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