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As goes the economy so does the market? It has seemed like a popular trend the month of May which has seen the DOW down 7.9%! The markets volatility has become an everyday occurrence. Ending the week pretty much flat but, giving you an ulcer if you happen to follow the markets. This was the worst May the Stock Market has seen since 1962! The $64,000 question on the street is whether or not we go into a double dip recession and or if European Credit Crisis spreads into other countries. To top it off with recent issues with North Korea, we can see what is troubling the markets.

The good side of all this is that oil has back off recent highs falling to around $73.50 a barrel. Rates have remained low, which is great for the housing market. The 30 year fixed rate national average is at 4.80% and the 15 year fixed rate average is 4.25%. The troubling news is that the purchase application index fell again this week 3.3% and after last weeks fall of 27.1% Existing Home Sales jumped to 5 month highs in April up 7.6%. Inventories were up 8.4% month supply and sales were up 21.1% in the Northeast year over year. 1st time home buyers accounted for 1/2 of the people buying. These are all lagging indicators and old data. It is pretty clear that the end of the Home Buyer Tax Credit Program had a tremendous effect on the housing market. I feel as though that is a bad thing because the problem going forward is, what is going to stimulate people now? The question now will be what happens in May and June?

Consumer Confidence Index was at 63.3% in May vs. April’s reading of 57.7% The next month will give us a great gauge on what the future has in store for us. The keys going forward will be the Unemployment Rate and the pulse of the consumer. Consumer Spending was unchanged for the month of April and the first time jobless claims fell 460,000 down 14,000. Consumer Sentiment for May was 73.6 which was better than expected. This measures the consumers mood.

My issue is that the way out of a financial problem is for the Government to cut taxes on business which gives the private sector an incentive to expand and create more jobs. It is clear that the unemployment rate which is currently at 9.8% will not be decreasing anytime soon. The Government can not expect prosperity by creating temporary employment like they have with the census workers. The way to economic prosperity is to encourage productivity and innovations. That leads to better products and services which then creates jobs.

Greg Afarian’s Market Report week of May 17 to the 21st. It seems that volatility is a common trend these days on Wall Street. The Market and Stocks got hammered again this week on worries of a Global slow down, problems looming in Europe and China, and more financial regulation in Washington. It is clear these factor have a dark cloud over the Markets and are effecting them. Stocks hit 3 month lows this week as the Dow plunged 356 points during trading on Thursday. The Dow Closed up 60 points but down 480 points for the week to 10,150. Gold is also down this week to $1,178 an ounce as Oil gets crushed to $69.84 a barrel. Crude is down 20% in the past month as a global double dip recession theory is now on the table.

Consumer Price Index fell in April to .1% and the core rate excluding food / energy it was unchanged. The Consumer Price Index measures and estimates the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households. This was the smallest gain since 1996 and the word on the street is, could this be a sign of Deflation? Deflation is when prices of goods and services fall faster than the inflation rate which then allows consumers to get more for there dollar.

Housing Starts were better than expected for the month of April up 5.8%. Housing Starts is when the construction actually begins. New Building Permits also came out this week was down 11.5% for the month of April. Many analysts are now starting to say that the housing numbers are going to be greatly impacted by the end of the Home Buyer Tax Credit Program. I have been call this for quite sometime now and the numbers speak for themselves as weekly mortgage applications for purchases fell a whopping 27.1% this was the biggest drop in 13 years!

30 Year Fixed Rates fell this week to 4.83% and the 15 Year Fixed Rate fell to 4.19%. The Fed revised their Gross Domestic Product figures for 2010 to 3.45% vs. previous estimates of 3.15% and real GDP to grow to 4% in 2011 & 2012. The Fed also estimated that unemployment would drop to 9.3% in the 4th quarter of 2010 and fall to 7.05% by the end of 2012. These are aggressive numbers considering that the market seems to be pricing in a double dip recession.

I think we are still not out of the woods. Since many of these economic figures are lagging indicators we’ll only know what happens as we start to move forward from this point. I feel some major problems we are going to have to deal with is Europe and how this Greece situation may effect other countries. China! If their housing market crashes what will the implications be and how that will ripple through the markets? We can’t forget Washington and their crusade to over regulate! This is no doubt a huge negative for the Markets and the more they tinker with policies the least likely things will be better than they are. Criminals always find a loophole, the only thing over regulating does is that it creates larger institutions and discourages the small guy to compete.

This was another very volatile week for the stock market. After last weeks Dow plunging 998.50 points in the mater of 5 minutes it was a very important week to see if that trend continued. The market open up huge on Monday with a more than 350 point surge but after almost breaking 11,000 the market leveled off to being up 234 for the week.

Retail Sales for April was up .4%. Retail Sales measures consumer spending. The core rate which excludes auto, gas, and building materials fell .2% which was the biggest decline in a year. Consumer Sentiment rose in May to 73.3% from April’s 72.2% Luxury spending is back on the rise as the economy tries to rebound. Gold hit a record high on Wednesday to reach $1,249.70 an Oz. as much of Europe looks to Gold as a safe haven as worries about the next Bail Out rumors spread. Oil surprisingly has been down as it closed down $2.42 on Friday to $71.98 a barrel.

30 Year Fixed Rate Average fell to 4.96% as the 15 Year Fixed Rate Average fell to 4.32%. This is the lowest level rates have been in the year. Foreclosure filings were down 9% in April, as Bank Repossessions were up a whopping 45% from last year! The expiration of the Home Buyer Tax Credit program has already effected the housing market. Purchase apps for the week were down 9.5% and sellers are being more aggressive with their prices. In some areas, we’ve seen a 10% drop in price to off set the popular tax buyer incentive program.

The question going forward is going to be what happens with home sales going forward without this program in place and how it will affect the rest of the market. Other things to keep an eye out for is other European Countries falling subject to a Bail Out. Obviously, another Terrorist Attack will also affect the market. We were extremely lucky last week to avoid a major problem and fortunately it seems the Government is doing a good job being one step ahead of these criminals!

Have we come out of a recession and recovered? I would say it’s too early to tell but, hopefully it wont be a double dip recession that some analysts have started to talk about.

About the Me: The above Real Estate information was provided by Greg Afarian, l can be reached via email or send me a message on Twiter.  Have a home to sell on the NorthShore in Mass? I’ll help you with my social media skills for a quick transaction to help save you time and money. I service the following towns in Boston and the Greater Boston Area: Andover, North Andover, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, Boxford, Bradford, Dracut, Reading, North Reading, and beyond.

The Home Buyer Tax Credit expired last week as Pending Home Sales were up in March 5.3%. That was up 21% from a year ago. Mortgage applications were also up last week 4% as the Government Home Buyer Tax Credit program ended. Purchase applications were up 13% and Refi’s were down 2.1%. What was really surprising was that FHA loans accounted for 50% of all purchase transactions which is a huge number! Mortgage rates dipped down this week as the stock markets went down. The 30 Year Fixed Rate National Average went down to 5.02% from last week’s 5.08% and the 15 Year Fixed went down to 4.34% from last week’s 4.38%.

US Non Farm Payroll Jobs Reported that there was 290,000 jobs that was added in April which was the biggest increase since March of 2006 however, the Unemployment Rate went up slightly to 9.9% which could be contributed to people that completely dropping out of the jobs market. This jobs number was better than expected.

The $64,000 question is will this selling carry over to next week? One reason it very well could will be problems persisting in European Countries. It seems as though a Global Recovery is out of the question for now.

About the Me: The above Real Estate information was provided by Greg Afarian, l can be reached via email or send me a message on Twiter Have a home to sell on the NorthShore in Mass? I’ll help you with my social media skills for a quick transaction to help save you time and money. I service the following towns in Boston and the Greater Boston Area. Andover, North Andover, Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, Boxford, Bradford, Dracut, Reading, North Reading, and beyond.

Virtual Media Realty is located at 18 Waverly Rd. North Andover, MA.

We are conveniently located close to RT 495, 125, 114 and centrally located 30 minutes north of Boston.

We were founded with the mission to bring cutting edge technology of social media to the Merrimack Valley Area and Greater Boston.  Since 90% of Home Buyers and Sellers intial search starts online, Virtual Media Realty has a huge competitive advantage by bringing tools like Video, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Photo’s, and Real Time Video to the consumers to help them make better decisions and bring transparency to the home buying / selling process.

When asked about how Virtual Media Realty is different than other Real Estate Companies, Greg Afarian, Virtual Media Realty Realtor specializing in the Andover, North Andover area’s along with the Greater Boston Real Estate Market, remarked, “We can do things no other Real Estate Agency can do anywhere.  We offer real time viewing of properties for clients that need to see properties, but either can not make it to the viewing locally, or are from out of state or out of country.  We can do all this in real time as we are walking thorough the property and potential buyers and clients can view the property in real time and ask our agents questions while we are on site.  There is No other agency in the country that can do that, and that is just one of many cutting edge technologies that we offer at no additional cost to our clients.”  Greg continues to say, “Our main goal is to offer a real estate experience like no other.  People are a lot more educated in the home buying process nowadays and we just want to make sure they have all the tools and answers to make the right decision.  With the advent of Social Networking, online reputation management, and Real Time Video Streaming, we offer our selling clients an extremely unique means of selling property that is extremely effective and utilized in such a way that minimizes the time a property will stay on market before being SOLD.”

Greg continues, “It’s all about the number of eyeballs we can get to view the property…it is truly a numbers game in this market.  The more people that see the property, the more likely the property will sell that much faster and we can certainly get alot of eyeballs on our clients properties”

Virtual Media Realty is always looking for agents to join the team that want to embrace new technologies and stay ahead of the curve in technology that is clearly here to stay.

Hours of Operation:

Monday thru Friday             10 am to 5 pm

or by appointment after normal business hours

Saturday and Sunday           By Appointment Only

Directions

From the South / Boston Area

Take the ramp onto I-93 N to exit 44A
to merge onto I-495 N toward Lawrence, to exit 43 for Mass. Ave toward N Andover
Merge onto Massachusetts Ave Turn left at Waverly Rd

From the North / Haverhill Area Take RT 495 South

Head south on MA-125 S/Main St toward Park Way
Continue to follow MA-125 S right at Sutton St
Turn left at Main St then right at Waverly Rd

Nathaniel Stevens was a prominent textile manufacturer in North Andover and Essex County. He began operation of the Stevens Mill in 1813.  His family was one of the original founders of North Andover.

The North Andover Mills were in operation from 1820 to 1899. In 1876 Stevens dissolved Nathaniel Stevens & Son. Stevens and his brothers continued the business separately. His three sons, Nathaniel, Samuel, and Moses, became partners in the business in 1886 and the firm became M. T. Stevens & Sons.

Moses Tyler Stevens and his family founded and funded Stevens Memorial Library in 1906 in dedication to his Father Nathaniel. The library had a major addition in 1994.

The Library District is amongst one of the most sought after neighborhoods in North Andover. The tree lined streets and older colonial homes which date

back to the early 1900′s give this area an uncommon characteristic.

Hours and Directions

Winter Hours

• Monday – Thursday   9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
• Friday – Saturday      9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Sunday                      2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Summer Hours

• Monday – Thursday  9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
• Friday                       9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Saturday & Sunday    CLOSED

Directions
From Rte. 495 North to Exit 43, take a right off the ramp. From Rte. 495 south to Exit 43, take a left off the ramp. Go to second set of lights and take a left onto Chickering Road (Rte. 125). At the next set of lights, take a left onto Main Street (North Andover Middle School is on your left). The Library is about 1/2 mile down the road on the left.

Greg Afarian’s Market Report week of April 4th through the 9th

This week we saw testimony on Capitol Hill regarding the mortgage crisis as committee members questioned former Fed Chairman Allen Greenspan, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Runin, Ex Citigroup CEO Chick Prince. It is upsetting to still be talking about this issue. The problem was that greed / corruption got the better part of alot of people and we are all now paying the price.

Oil hit $87 a barrel this week settling to $84.89 and Gold has been up as well reaching $1,161. These are two key inflationary signs but, the Fed will probably have the blinders on regarding rates due to the higher risk of slower
growth. The Stock Market is doing quite well as it approaches 11,000 and could be seen as a Bullish sign. Many people on Wall Street are calling for the end of the recession. Last weeks Jobless Claims Number might be a strong argument. But, if you look at the numbers closely you would see that out of the 162,000 jobs added nearly 60,000 of them are temporary jobs added for the census. Economist bragging over this figure (the biggest gain in 3 years) really should look deeper into the numbers. The Unemployment Rate in the United Sates is still 9.7%.

30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Rates rose dramatically this week due to an auction of 10 Year Treasury Notes. The 30 Year Fixed Rate average rose to 5.31% up from 5.04% last week. The 15 Year Fixed Rate was up as well to 4.54% from last weeks 4.34%

Existing Home Sales last week fell for the 3rd straight month as inventories grew 9.5% to 3.59 Million Units and a 8.6 month supply. What is surprising is that 27% of all purchases are cash transactions. New Home Sales in February were down 2.2%, it was expected to go up 1.9% and in January New Home Sales (new construction) was down 8.9%.

The FED leaves rates UNCH. Prime Rate at 3.25% and Fed Funds rate at .25%

Housing / New Permits fell 5.9% in February.

Consumer Price Index in February was UNCH, the core CPI which excludes food and energy rose .1%
The Core CPI up 1.3% in the past year. Smallest gain in 6 years.

DOW closed at 10,742. NASD closed at 2,374. Crude Oil hits $80.64.

30 YR Fixed Rate Average 4.91%
15 YR Fixed Rate Average 4.24%

Merrimack Valley Real Estate Stats. Last month 107 properties Under Agreement and 87 SOLD.
Compared to 1 year ago there was 66 SOLD which mean sales are up 20% from last year this time.

Stocks to watch RIMM, VLO, CSX, BIDU

Job’s Report in January Non-Farm Jobs declined to 36,000

Unemployment Report unch at 9.7%

Pending Home Sales for January fell to 7.6%

Crude Oil hits $81.50 and Gold is at $1,136 an Ounce

Greece battles credit crisis and has roits.

30 YR Fixed Rate Average 4.95%
15 YR Fixed Rate Average 4.27%

Stocks to watch AAPL, GOOG, RIMM, VLO