Market Studies

Home purchases made with cash are on the decline across the country, according to Zillow, but cash sales still make up a significant portion of the lower-priced home market in many areas. Cash sales declined year-over-year in the first quarter in 102 of the 126 metro areas Zillow observes. Zillow chalked up the decline to waning investor demand and a resurgence of traditional buyers in the market.

Ellie Mae released its Origination Insight Report for May, analyzing data from over 3.5 million loan applications that ran through Ellie Mae’s Encompass mortgage management solution. The company found that refinances declined slightly for the month to 33 percent of all loans, down from 37 percent in the previous month.

The National Housing Report from RE/MAX found that for the third month in a row, home sales in May rose higher than sales in the previous month. May sales were 11.5 percent higher than in April, but stubbornly remained below the same period last year by 9.9 percent.

ProTeck Valuation Services released its May Home Value Forecast (HVF), which detailed affordability indexes for Houston and Miami. The report found that although home prices have been rising steadily, housing is still very affordable when considered on historical terms.

RealtyTrac released its first-ever Natural Disaster Housing Risk Report Thursday, which assigns a risk score for a natural disaster to more than 3,000 county housing markets nationwide. Scores were based on risk data for three natural disasters—hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes—and each county was assigned to one of five categories based on their score: Very High Risk, High Risk, Medium Risk, Low Risk, and Very Low Risk.

The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI), released Monday in collaboration with Wells Fargo, registered 49 this month, up from 45 in May. A value below 50 indicates more builders view market conditions as "poor" rather than "good." Despite falling one point short of the benchmark, the moderate uptick in sentiment "is a welcome sign and shows some renewed confidence in the industry," said NAHB chairman Kevin Kelly.

The national default rate declined again from the previous month, according to data through May 2014 released by the S&P Dow Jones Indices and Experian for the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices. The indices offer a comprehensive measure of changes in consumer credit defaults.

The housing market took an unexpected dip in May, with home sales dropping year-over-year despite a surge in new listings. A report published by Redfin's Research Center indicated that home inventory was up 9.1 percent in May. That number represents the highest number of new listings to come onto the market in the last four years.

The latest Residential Price Index (RPI) report from FNC, Inc., shows home price appreciation continued in April at a monthly pace of 0.6 percent nationally, matching March's month-over-month increase. Narrowing down the list of surveyed markets, the 30-city composite index picked up 0.6 percent compared to March's 0.4 percent gain.

Baby Boomers, as a focus of study for their effect on the housing market, have been an underserved population, according to a blog post written by Trulia's Jed Kolko. He investigated whether baby boomer downsizing—selling a single-family home in order to move into a multi-family unit—could be a future trend in the housing market.