|
|
||
Fredericksburg area highlighted in Associated Press' recent economic stress survey Date published: 10/6/2009
BY BILL FREEHLING Virginia and the Fredericksburg area fared well in The Associated Press' monthly analysis of economic stress in more than 3,100 U.S. counties in August. The AP's monthly analysis, which was released yesterday, looks at a county's unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates to determine which ones are "stressed." Caroline County was among the five U.S. counties with the most-improved foreclosure rate between July and August, the AP notes. "We have noticed an improvement over the past couple of months," said Mike Manns, one of the owners of Pitts & Manns Realty in Bowling Green. Manns said part of the reason for the improvement is people are getting more realistic with their sales prices, which is taking homes off the market. Home sales in Caroline were up 44 percent in August compared with the year before. The AP report also singled out Prince William County as being among the five U.S. counties with most-improved foreclosure rates over the past year. The median home sales price rose 6.5 percent in Prince William in August compared with the year before, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. Homes spent just 63 days on the market before selling in August. The fate of Prince William's real estate market is crucial to the stability of the Fredericksburg-area housing market, Dan Fulton, president of Fairfax-based Fulton Research, noted at an August presentation to area builders. When Prince William prices level out, that helps the local area. The AP report also named Virginia as one of the four states that showed the most improvement in their stress scores in August. The others were Colorado, South Carolina and North Carolina. Virginia's jobless rate fell from 6.9 percent in July to 6.5 percent in August. Unemployment fell to 5.7 percent in the Fredericksburg area in August. The state and Fredericksburg-area economies are benefiting from more federal spending. Not all areas fared as well in the AP's latest analysis, though overall there were fewer counties that qualified as economically distressed in August compared with July. Foreclosure hotbeds in metro Las Vegas and South Florida continued to suffer. As in previous months, Nevada, Michigan and California topped the list of the most economically stressed states. North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska were at the bottom. --The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405
The $8k tax return for new homeowners will end just like the $4k clunker tax and the bottom will drop out again just like it did for car sales. That is, unless they extend it then sales will continue for a little while longer but people are starting to raise their prices again and that will help to kill sales as well. We are not out of the woods yet.
yea its all better just go to the churchs that help people and see the line around the building
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
