Manhattan Beach Real Estate-Redondo Beach Townhomes: Manhattan Beach : Market Snapshot September 15, 2008

Manhattan Beach... morning

Borrowing from Laurel & Hardy... Here's another fine mess we are in... It will no doubt take a week or so to see how the bankruptcy of Lehman, the take over of Merill Lynch and who knows what with Wachovia and WAMU, will ultimately affect Wall Street and our pocketbooks.

The FED meets tomorrow. Expectations are that the FED will keep the discount rate the same for now. Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley and General Mills are reporting quarterly earning later in the week. On Wednesday the Commerce Dept will release housing start data for August along with the second quarter trade balance. I'm expecting the market will be bouncing around like a yo-yo.

Residential real estate interest rates are maintaining the low numbers from last week and there is speculation that rates may drop a bit further... not a lot but a little. However so far the relief doesn't seem to extend to Jumbo loan rates... these are still on the high side. Our local Manhattan Beach-Beach Cities real estate market remains in better shape then other areas...but that doesn't mean we are not going to be in for some further declines in price.

August is typically a slow month for sales so September sale numbers are generally lower then those in June, July and August. If we see a bounce it will not likely happen until mid to late October. However if rates continue to be low we just might have a fairly good fourth quarter.

Manhattan Beach: Market Snapshot September 15, 2008 (click graph to enlarge)