{"id":1599,"date":"2014-03-26T17:54:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T21:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2019-07-03T06:45:22","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T10:45:22","slug":"real-estate-climate-change-and-data-porn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/26\/real-estate-climate-change-and-data-porn\/","title":{"rendered":"Real estate, climate change, and data-porn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"winter<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The National Association of Realtors\u00ae (realtor.org) March 20<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup> news release<\/a> reported that February home sales remained subdued because of rising home prices and severe winter weather.\u00a0 The decline in existing home sales was just 0.4% from January, but was 7.1% lower than last February\u2019s figures.\u00a0 NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun stated that home sales declines were due to \u201cweather disruptions, limited inventory, increasingly restrictive mortgage underwriting, and decreasing housing affordability.\u201d\u00a0 And although it may sound bad, Yun actually has a rosy outlook saying, \u201c\u2026Some transactions are simply being delayed, so there should be some improvement in the months ahead. With an expected pickup in job creation, home sales should trend up modestly over the course of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if a snow filled and cold February is to blame for poor home sales, was Snowmagedden<\/a> and Snowzilla the reason for increased<\/i> home sales during February 2010?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0\u00a0 And although home sales increased 5.1% year-over-year here in Montgomery County MD during February 2010, it was mostly due to increased home buyer demand that some speculate was due in part to the availability of first time home buyer tax credits.\u00a0 Additionally, RealtorMag <\/a>reported that Southern California December home sales dropped about 21% month-over-month, and were down about 9% in compared to the same period in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As home sales are trending lower, it\u2019s reasonable to look for reasons why demand is soft; but can weather be the main reason to keep potential home buyers at home?  Probably not.  Consumer demand <\/a>is a robust force that is multifaceted, and can even prevail over seemingly difficult circumstances.  Consumer demand can even trump weather, as was the case during the winter of 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"winter<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Consumer demand can even be resilient in the face of the speculative effects of global warming.\u00a0 A November 2013 RealtyToday article (The Looming Global Warming Catastrophe and its Effect on Real Estate<\/a><\/i>; realtytoday.com) discusses how home buyer demand for coastal property has remained strong even as increased claims that climate change will make these areas uninhabitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Housing data cause and effect is only conjecture unless it is directly observed.\u00a0 To make sense of the \u201cdata-porn\u201d that is excessively presented in the media, often without proper or erroneous explanation; economic writer Ben Casselman offers three rules to figure out what the media is saying (Three Rules to Make Sure Economic Data Aren\u2019t Bunk<\/a><\/i>; fivethirtyeight.com): Question the data; Know what is measured; and Look outside the data.\u00a0 Casselman states, \u201cThe first two rules have to do with questioning the numbers \u2014\u00a0what they\u2019re measuring, how they\u2019re measuring it, and how reliable those measurements are. But when a claim passes both those tests, it\u2019s worth looking beyond the data for confirmation<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping these rules in mind, could the winter slowdown be the result of cold weather, or is it something else?  Sure, cold weather may have marginal effects on home buyer behavior and demand; however, weather does not typically affect extended periods of consumer behavior unless weather events are catastrophic.  The current data may be indicative of a housing market that is returning to the distinct seasonal activity that we have been used to for many years prior to the \u201cgo-go\u201d market and subsequent recovery years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, other factors referenced by Dr. Yun, such as increased home prices and tougher mortgage standards, are more likely to be the reasons for subdued home sales.  And as the year progresses, these factors may emerge to be significant issues for home buyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Dan Krell
\u00a9 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Protected<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer<\/a>. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Association of Realtors\u00ae (realtor.org) March 20th news release reported that February home sales remained subdued because of rising home prices and severe winter weather.\u00a0 The decline in existing home sales was just 0.4% from January, but was 7.1% lower than last February\u2019s figures.\u00a0 NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun stated that home sales declines … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Real estate, climate change, and data-porn”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[234,233,288,651,29,47,13,26],"tags":[733,734,966,893,892,466,987,807,505,797,593],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-housing","category-housing-market","category-housing-recovery","category-market-conditions","category-market-report","category-real-estate","category-real-estate-market","tag-climate-change","tag-data-porn","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-housing","tag-housing-market-2","tag-housing-recovery","tag-market-conditions","tag-market-report-2","tag-real-estate","tag-real-estate-market-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VZLf-pN","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5083,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions\/5083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}