There’s always something to howl about.

Business Journal: “Housing market could bottom out in six months”

From The Business Journal of Phoenix:

The housing market could bottom out during the next six months, according to Metrostudy’s latest report on local real estate markets.

“Cutbacks in new production, aggressive incentives by sellers, the exit of the majority of investors and the fundamental demographic support for housing demand are positive indicators for a housing turnaround by mid-2007,” said Mike Inselmann, president of the Richmond, Texas, company. “The Federal Reserve has ended its series of rate increases, and mortgage rates have dropped notably in the last few months,” he added.

Phoenix continues to have one of the nation’s strongest economies, said Ben Sage, director of Metrostudy’s Arizona division. Even though job growth declined from a peak of more than 100,000 new jobs for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2005, the 91,900 jobs posted at the end of September 2006 puts the state at the top of the nation, he said.

It will take a few days for the errors to shake out of the MLS, but October’s Market Basket looks pretty weak: Sales down, prices down — but inventories continue their downward trend. Given that we’re headed into the holidays, it’s reasonable to expect the rest of the year to be slow.

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