A lot has happened in the real estate market over the past week. Homebuyers, sellers and investors alike are looking forward to some good news from the sector they’ve been into for years now. Especially for those who are planning to buy a house this year, there’s really good news as there are more homes for sale allowing homebuyers more options.
Alcynna Lloyd of Housing Wire wrote an article about the inventory increases at the fastest rate in almost 4 years. This is really awesome news for homebuyers. Read the article below to learn more.
Good News Homebuyers, There Are More Homes For Sale
In January, inventory increases at the fastest rate in nearly four years
Image Courtesy of Housing Wire
In January, the number of homes newly listed for sale rose 4.4% from the previous year, boosting the number of homes for sale up 6.3%, the largest supply increase since May 2015, according to new data from Redfin.
“Things are looking good for buyers in 2019. The supply of homes for sale is increasing faster than it has in nearly four years,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said. “December was a rough month for home sales, but homeowners appear to be undeterred in the new year as more are listing their homes for sale.”
“We predicted price growth would slow down and that prices would drop in coastal cities like San Francisco and Seattle, but we didn’t know how sellers would react to a cooler market. It’s encouraging to see that listings are up–it means that sellers aren’t taking the ball and going home,” Fairweather concluded.
According to Redfin’s analysis, home-sale prices moved forward 2.9% on an annual basis, coming in at a median price of $285,900, Furthermore, home prices fell year over year in 10 of the 81 largest metros, including San Francisco and Portland, signaling a major shift in West Coast markets.
Nationally, completed home sales retreated for the sixth consecutive month, and declined 7.6% from the same time period a year prior. In fact, home sales fell in 57 of the 81 largest housing markets. Read the entire article here…
This is exciting times for the real estate market, with more opportunities for homebuyers to own a house. In addition, they have lots of house for sale to choose from. It’s only a matter of time until we welcome our future homeowners in the country.
Meanwhile on our next real estate news is the planned GST on real estate and how it will impact home buyers and the real estate industry in general. The housing news desk of housing.com wrote this story so check it out below.
GST on Real Estate: How Will It Impact Home Buyers And The Industry
Image Credits: Housing.com
With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) intended to replace multiple levels of taxation, we look at how it will affect the real estate sector – from home loans and housing purchase to rentals, across various segments and the grey areas that will impact the final price for a home seeker
Update on February 20, 2019: The GST Council has deferred a decision on tax rates on real estate till February 24, 2019. Briefing reporters after a meeting of the GST Council on February 20, 2019, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that with regard to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate on under-construction housing properties, since certain states wanted physical meeting for this agenda, hence, the Council would meet again on February 24 to take a decision.
Update on February 1, 2019: Unfortunately, the Interim Budget 2019 has not reduced GST rates on homes. The interim FM Piyush Goyal shared that the GST council is awaiting recommendations from the council of ministers, to take a final call on the same.
Update on January 10, 2019: No change in GST rates for real estate. Though the industry was hoping for a revision in GST rates for under construction houses, in the January 10, 2019 session of the committee, differences of opinion came about on including real estate under the Goods and Services Tax. So, the council decided to form a seven-member group of ministers to deliberate further.
Update on December 22, 2018: While the real estate sector was hoping for a downward revision or reduction in GST rates for under construction houses, the committee has maintained the status quo on GST rates for the real estate sector. However, industry experts are hoping for a revision in GST rates for under construction houses, in the January 2019 session of the committee.
The GST Bill was approved in the Lok Sabha on March 29, 2017 with four supplementary legislations- The Central GST Bill, 2017; The Integrated GST Bill, 2017; The GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and The Union Territory GST Bill, 2017.
At the debate preceding the passing of the bills, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the GST, which will usher in a uniform indirect tax regime in the country, will make commodities ‘slightly cheaper.’ “Today, you have tax on tax, you have cascading effect. When all of that is removed, goods will become slightly cheaper,” he said. On why the GST Council has decided on multiple GST rates, Jaitley said one rate would be ‘highly regressive as hawai chappal and BMW cannot be taxed at the same rate.’ Click here to read the rest of this post…
Imposing GSAT on real estate could have both positive and negative implications, possibly in the home loans, housing purchase, rentals, among others. Right now, the proposal is still under debate, but the real estate sector already hoping for a downward revision or reduction in GST rates. We’ll see in the coming updates how the proposal would eventually benefit the real estate market.
Lastly on our real estate news is the plan of tech giant Google’s plan to invest $13B in real estate. This is the most interesting news of the week. This exciting news was published by the National Association of Realtors. Read the article below.
Google Plans to Invest $13B In Real Estate
Image Courtesy of National Association of Realtors
Google’s appetite for real estate is growing. The tech giant’s CEO announced this week that the company is building new data centers and offices and plans to expand to several key locations across the country this year. It plans to spend $13 billion this year in real estate.
“With this new investment, Google will now have a home in 24 total states, including data centers in 13 communities,” wrote Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, in a blog post. “2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it.”
Google announced that new data centers will be opened in 2019 in Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Nebraska, Google’s first presence in those states. Google also announced it would be doubling its workforce in Virginia as well as expanding its New York campus at Hudson Square.
Pichai says the expansion plans will likely create “tens of thousands” of construction jobs across Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia as well as in Oklahoma and South Carolina, where the company already has existing data centers. Learn more about this huge investment here…
With companies like Google venturing into real estate investing means opening a huge opportunity in the market for both small and big market players. Also, Google’s appetite for real estate is rapidly growing and planned on expanding to several key locations in the next few years.
And there you have it, your latest real estate news for this week. For more real estate news and information, Dependable Homebuyers can help you find the latest trends in the market. Just visit our website https://www.dependablehomebuyers.com to learn more.
