Tag Archives: Home Sales

Americans continue to grapple with uncertainty about the housing market, with 58 percent of U.S. adults expecting recovery to be at least another two years away. Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac and Pete Flint of Trulia are of the same mind as consumers. They peg the housing recovery to begin taking shape between 2013 and 2014. The robo-signing debacle has left most consumers mired in distrust of banks and the government. The industry experts say its effect on REO sales will be minimal, but the impact on consumer confidence could be especially damaging.

The sharp fall in residential property prices in the third quarter means that housing in the U.S. has become even more undervalued. Based on the latest readings of two closely watched industry gauges, the analysts at Capital Economics have concluded that house prices are now 14 to 17 percent undervalued relative to disposable income per capita. A 30-year high in housing affordability hasn't been enough to drive consumer demand, and the research firm says recovery appears to have stalled before it even really began.

Recently released information from Radar Logic claims home prices experienced a much sharper decline than the decline shown in other companies' reports. Radar Logic's September housing market report released on Thursday shows the composite index of home prices experienced a 2.7 percent decline from the previous month. Radar Logic asserts that its data, which is compiled from measurements of 25 metropolitan statistical areas, shows that the housing market is weaker than it might appear.

Industry data released Thursday showed that the number of contracts signed for home purchases climbed in October. The news came as a surprise to analysts and industry professionals who have been anticipating a continued falloff in buyer demand due to the typical seasonal slowdown in home sales, compounded by concerns that servicers' affidavit problems could muddy some transactions. The National Association of Realtors says its gauge of pending sales for previously owned homes rose 10.4 percent.

New data released by RealtyTrac Thursday shows that distressed homes - including those in default, scheduled for foreclosure auction, and REO - accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the third quarter. These properties sold at an average of 32 percent below the price of their non-distressed counterparts. The company tracked 113,933 REO sales during the July to September period and 74,815 pre-foreclosure, typically short sale, transactions.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that mortgage applications for refinancing dropped 21.6 percent for the week ending November 26, as interest rates continued to head upward. It marked the third weekly decrease for the refinance index, which has hit its lowest level since June 2010. MBA's measurement of loan applications for home purchases rose 1.1 percent from one week earlier and, in contrast, is at its highest level since the beginning of May 2010.

The Las Vegas region experienced a dip in home sales and median sale price in October, according to new figures from MDA DataQuick. A total of 3,961 new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area in October, down 7.4 percent from September and down 21.8 percent from a year earlier. The overall median sale price for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the region dropped nearly 4 percent from a year ago to its lowest level in more than a decade.

According to MDA DataQuick, which tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records, Phoenix-area home sales dropped to their lowest level for an October in 15 years. The decline is attributed to low new-home transactions, the slow economic recovery, and the market lull created by the homebuyer tax credits. A total of 6,903 new and resale houses and condos sold during October in the combined Maricopa-Pinal counties metropolitan area, down 6.2 percent from the month before and down 24.6 percent from a year earlier.

Americans are less certain that the housing market has found its floor, and continue to be wary of buying a home. Those are the findings of Fannie Mae's most recent nationwide housing survey. The GSE says consumer attitudes about the housing market are more negative since its second-quarter poll, but the declining optimism is reinforcing realistic attitudes toward owning and renting. For the first time, delinquent borrowers are more likely to say they would rent rather than buy their next home.

Mortgage applications for home purchases jumped during the third week of November to their highest level since May. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday that its index of purchase applications soared 14.4 percent for the week ending November 19th. MBA says the increase suggests growing consumer confidence. It offset a 1.0 percent decline in applications for mortgage refinancing, which in contrast, hit their lowest mark since the end of June.