Market Studies

CoreLogic released its Home Price Index (HPI) for December 2013, noting an 11 percent bump since December 2012. Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, was optimistic about the future: "After six years of fits and starts, we can now see a clearer path to a durable recovery in single-family residential housing across most of the United States."

Search statistics compiled by Trulia show that for every 10-degree drop in temperature, searches on the company's engine increase by 2.6 percent nationally. For warm regions specifically, home searches rise 4.4 percent.

The Surveys of Consumers' Index of Consumer Sentiment dropped to 81.2 in January from December's 82.5. Compared to a year ago, January's survey was up an even 10 percent from 73.8.

According to year-end data from Black Knight Financial Services, 6.47 percent of the nation’s mortgages last year were delinquent, down from a peak of 10.57 percent in January 2010. Meanwhile, about 2.48 percent of loans were in some state of foreclosure—a rate about 4.6 times the pre-crisis average.

Redfin reports the median time on market for homes in its 21-city survey was 35 days in December, up three days from November. The median time on market in December 2012 was 30 days, according to the company.

The homeownership rate dropped 0.1 percentage point to 65.2 percent over the fourth quarter 2013. The rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the Census Bureau.

Mortgage rates closed out December—and the year—with one final, small increase, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. FHFA’s national data for December shows the contract interest rate on the composite of all mortgage loans was 4.25 percent, an increase of 3 basis points from the month prior.

CoreLogic anticipates a substantial deceleration in home price gains this year. In fact, the firm predicts home price gains will fall just below the long-term historical norm of 4.5 percent appreciation annually, which has been maintained since 1975.

RealtyTrac released on Thursday its Year-End and Q4 2013 Home Flipping Report, which shows single-family home flips—in which a home is purchase and sold again within six months—totaled 156,862 last year, up 16 percent from 2012 and 114 percent from 2011.

Pending home sales fell in December to their lowest level since October 2011, according to numbers tracked by the National Association of Realtors. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said there were several factors at play in last month’s falloff in contracts—not the least of which was onset of harsh winter storms.