Apr 18

Des Moines Housing Update – April 2012

des moines housing prices

Housing prices are declining at a yearly pace of 4.5%.  This significant downturn is worse than the time period following the financial & housing crisis a couple years ago.  Readers of this blog should not be surprised.  We’ve been looking at negative employment growth and the Iowa Leading Indicators Index was in dangerous territory for …

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Mar 06

Des Moines Economic & Housing Update

Housing Prices Des Moines

Sorry I haven’t updated my blog in a while.  I recently took a position at Nevitt Real Estate in Perry, so I’ve been busy with the move.  Although I’m no longer specializing in the Des Moines market, I still do occasional business there and will try to continue to be your source of housing and …

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Jan 12

Leading Economic Indicators for Des Moines, Iowa

Economy in Iowa Future Direction

Leading economic indicators for the state fell for the 4th straight month, to 104.29, down 1.07% on an annualized rate.  Remember, and negative reading at or over 2% would indicate an oncoming recession in the state.  While we are pretty far away from that point, we are at the same reading we had in June …

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Jan 09

Foreclosure Rate in Des Moines

HUD Homes, Foreclosures in Des Moines, Investment Opportunities

The foreclosure & 90+ day delinquency rates remained elevated in October.  Data just released shows a slight rise in each measure. I’m in contact with a lot of investors, and they seem to be the main buyer of these properties in Des Moines.  They are finding some great deals, fixing them up, and reselling them …

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Jan 06

Housing Prices in Des Moines

Click to Enlarge

I was very interested in the December housing number.  Due to the unseasonably warm temperatures, I thought maybe we’d have some support or perhaps even a move upwards from November.  But, to my chagrin, the seasonal forces are too strong.  Prices dropped about $2,000, from $138,687 in November to $136,354 in December.  No reason for alarm …

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Jan 04

Interest Rates, Employment, & Building Permits in Des Moines

Buying Real Estate in Des Moines?

Here are a couple real estate related data points I like to track on a monthly basis. The most important of these is employment, which rose 0.6% from last year.  This number, while not great, is encouraging since it is the only the second month of positive growth we have seen in the last year. …

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Dec 21

Employment & Housing Prices in Des Moines

Housing Prices in Des Moines

Here is an update to most of the charts I think are important to the housing market in Des Moines & surrounding areas. First housing prices.  They remain steady although the yearly growth rate does turn positive. Next Employment.  I’m going to stop including the chart of the unemployment rate, since it is so misleading. …

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Nov 30

Employment in Des Moines Continues Downward Trend

employment in des moines - click to enlarge

Total employment in the Des Moines & surrounding area continues to decline, albeit at a very small amount.  In September, total employment dropped 0.3% from a year ago.  That was better than a -0.48% & -0.58% reading for the two months prior.  Employment in the metro The good news is that the unemployment rate continues …

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Nov 28

Housing Prices in the Des Moines Area Holding Steady

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For the third month in a row, housing prices in the Des Moines area have risen on a year over year basis, but by less than they did the last two months.  In October, prices showed a yearly increase of 0.03%.  The good news is that it is still positive!  The bad news is that …

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Nov 22

Iowa’s Leading Economic Indicators Take a Turn for the Worse

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The leading economic indicators index for Iowa dropped to 104.4 in September from 104.5 in August.  The September reading equates to a -0.5% growth rate for the index over the least six months.  This is important because a reading of -2% would signal a recession warning for the state.  In order to get to that …

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