Home Prices Increase

Yes, it’s always good to hear positive news on the San Diego real estate market. First, let’s talk nationally, today’s release of the monthly Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller index showed that home prices increased by 1.2% in July versus the average home price in June. for all 20 cities tracked by this report, home prices increased in every city for the third month in a row.

San Diego County house prices rose 0.8 percent in July compared to 12 months earlier, breaking an 18 month down streak. On a monthly basis, San Diego home prices rose 1.1 percent in July. Naturally, one should keep in mind that from about March through September, is typically the best marketing time for home sales.

Without question, the main underpinning of the improving real estate market is our historic low mortgage rates. Just last week,the average rate on a 30 year fixed rate home mortgage was under 3 1/2%!

With the Federal Reserve printing $40 billion a month to purchase mortgage-backed securities, it looks like rates remain low for quite some time. Sure, the Federal Reserve’s running of the printing presses is great for home mortgage rates, but short-term, it’s decimating savings rates and creating an artificial bubble in the stock market. Also, long-term, the Federal Reserve’s actions will accelerate the decreasing purchasing power of the dollar and all are hard-earned savings and retirement accounts. for those that don’t agree with me, keep in mind, that today’s gold price of over $1,770 an ounce is not really because the value of gold has gone up, it’s that the purchasing power of the dollar is decreasing.

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