Market Studies

The authenticity of this year's recovery may still be in question, but according to Freddie Mac's Economic and Housing Market Outlook for October, the housing sector is showing strength unmatched in previous years. Over the past several years, housing has either hurt or done little to help GDP. ""However, now we're seeing housing resuming its traditional role of leading the recovery charge and once again being the bright spot in the economy,"" said Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac.

While distressed sales continued to languish in California, equity sales, or non-distressed sales, firmed up and reached a four-year high in September, according to a report from the California Association of Realtors. The share of non-distressed sales in September accounted for 63 percent of all sales compared to 62.2 percent in August and 50.8 percent in September 2011, C.A.R. reported.

National home values in the third quarter experienced their biggest increase in more than half a decade, according to Zillow. Home values in the United States rose 1.3 percent from the second to the third quarter, marking the fourth straight quarter of increases, Zillow reported. In addition, the Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) rose year-over-year, increasing 3.2 percent to $153,800. The recovery pace has been uneven across markets, however. As the summer buying season ended, many metro areas reported decreasing quarterly values.

The Federal Reserve's recently-announced commitment to keep interest rates low until 2015 isn't doing much to persuade consumers to borrow, according to Bankrate's Financial Security Index for October. Seventy-four percent of consumers said they are not interested in taking on debt, while 23 percent said they are more inclined to borrow. Three percent said they did not know. While the Fed's announcement was intended to stimulate economic activity, it may have had the opposite effect, one expert told Bankrate.

Foreclosure inventory continued to diminish in September, but the delinquency rate saw a sudden month-over-month surge, according to the ""first look"" mortgage report from Lender Processing Servicers (LPS), which has a loan-level database covering about 70 percent of the market. The delinquency rate, which stood at 7.40 percent in September, hiked up 7.72 percent from August, but is still down by 4.19 percent from a year ago.

Home prices reached a sustainable bottom during the first quarter of this year, according to Barclays' U.S. residential credit strategy team. In many markets, longer-term affordability measures point to equilibrium, the firm's analysts contend. While the floor appears to have materialized, they stress that home prices are likely to recover slowly over the next 4 to 5 years, increasing on average 3 to 4 percent annually. At that rate, Barclays' analysts explained, home prices will remain below their 2006 pre-crisis peaks until June 2021.

Florida's housing market was hot to end the summer, according to housing data released by Florida Realtors. As national home sales and prices showed mixed results for September, Florida's market posted higher sales, higher pending sales, higher median prices, and a slightly down inventory for the month.

Oftentimes, when the idea of home affordability is calculated, the focus is on the monthly mortgage payment, and how to bring that particular number down through a modification or refinancing. One report assessed the burden of housing expenses combined with transportation costs to offer a more comprehensive view of what defines housing affordability. Overall, research results found moderate-income households, or households earning 50 to 100 percent of the median income of their metropolitan area, spent 59 percent of their income on housing and transportation costs in 2010.

The commercial real estate sector is improving, but investors need to be patient and not expect ""quick wins,"" according to findings from Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2013, which was jointly released by PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). The report included surveys and interviews with over 900 individuals, and found ""modest gains in leasing, rents, and pricing will extend across U.S. markets from coast to coast and improve prospects for all property sectors, including housing."" Among the major commercial property types, survey participants in the report favored apartments.

The housing sector hit a speed bump in September as existing home sales dipped, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Existing home sales fell 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.75 million, the first decline in three months. The median price of an existing home was down 0.5 percent from August to $183,900, but the median price was up 11.3 percent from September 2011, the strongest year-year dollar increase since January 2006.