Market Studies

Home asking prices are on the rise nationwide, according to the August 2014 Trulia Price Monitor released on September 9, but they are rising at a faster rate in "judicial" states where the foreclosure process takes longer.

Improvements in the labor market in 2014 have not translated to widespread housing market recovery this year, according to the Fannie Mae August 2014 National Housing Survey. Instead, data in the survey indicated that recovery for the housing market will be slow heading into 2015. The number of people in the survey who said they believed now is a good time to sell a home fell six percentage points to 64 percent, an all-time low since the monthly survey began in June 2010. The number of people who said now is a good time to buy a home also declined to 38 percent.

The number of foreclosure filings in a six-county region in Illinois that includes Chicago dropped by nearly 38 percent from the first half of 2013 to the first half of 2014, falling to its lowest level since 2007, according to data released by the Woodstock Institute on September 4.

While the state of Alabama has been slow to recover economically since the recession officially ended five years ago, recovery of the housing market in the state has struggled along with the rest of the nation so far this year, according to a special commentary on Alabama's economic outlook by the Wells Fargo Economics Group for September 2014.

The U.S. is not prepared to accommodate its aging population where housing needs are concerned, according to a report released by Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and AARP Foundation released on September 2.

Though pending sales were down 2.1 percent compared to a year ago, July's figure was the highest since August 2013 and was the third straight month in which the index measured above 100, a value NAR considers to be an average level of contract activity.

The nationwide annual rate of the sale of residential properties, which include single family homes, condominiums, and town homes, declined by 3 percent month-over-month and 12 percent year-over-year in July, according to RealtyTrac's July 2014 U.S Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report released on August 29

Minimal employment growth and weak demographics in Pennsylvania have economists convinced that the state's housing market is not quite on the road to recovery, according to a special commentary released by Wells Fargo Economics Group on August 26.

Though the economy in Colorado is among the best of any state in the country, the housing market recovery in the state has been slow, according to a special commentary released by Wells Fargo Economics Group. The commentary indicates that there is cause to believe the outlook for the housing market in Colorado is bright, however.

Nearly 43 percent of homeowners between 35 and 49 are underwater on their mortgages. In contrast, only 15 percent of millennial homeowners (those between 20 and 34 years old) and 31 percent of baby boomers (50 to 64 years old) are underwater.