Any way you look at it, the New Home Sales numbers were down: Sales of new one-family houses in January 2007 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 937,000, accordingto estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment. This is 16.6 percent (±12.8%) below the revised December rate of 1,123,000 and is 20.1 percent(±9.4%) below the January 2006 estimate of 1,173,000. Note the high margin of error for these figures.  That does cast some uncertainty as to the extent of the decline. According to CNBC: The monthly decline was the sharpest…
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If you listen to some of the cheerleaders in the real estate industry, they have concluded that the housing industry has "stabilized."  One of the reasons given is that speculators have left the market, and now the market only consists of people buying homes for themselves. A quick glance at the Arizona Republic classifieds yields a different story.  Here are some of the funding ads from last weekend: $$$ Private Real Estate Loans That Don’t Cost an Arm & leg Call Dennis 520-XXX-XXXX   12% "Hard Money" RE Equity Loans 602-XXX-XXXX    Bridge Loans $200,000 to 10 million. Direct lenders National/International….
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