Market Studies

Four out of five metropolitan areas recorded lower home prices in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) quarterly survey released today. In addition, NAR said, existing-home sales fell from the second quarter in 32 states.

Single-family home prices in Rhode Island continued to deteriorate in September, with the median home price plunging 17 percent to $220,000 from $265,000 a year ago, according to the latest state report from The Warren Group.

Housing Predictor, which provides housing forecasts in 250 markets, has identified 10 markets where the regional economies are healthy and have strong potential for increasing prosperity. These housing markets have bucked the national trend in 2008 and avoided the subprime crisis, the consultancy says.

Single-family home sales in Connecticut dropped 5.3 percent in September from a year ago, bucking a 12-month trend of double-digit percentage declines, according to a new report from The Warren Group, publisher of The Commercial Record and a provider of New England real estate data.

Integrated Asset Services LLC (IAS), an REO management and disposition company based in Denver, Colorado, released its IAS360 House Price Index for September 2008. The monthly report showed a 2.1 percent decline in house prices on a national level in September, with an annual decline of 13.

Home values in the United States posted their seventh consecutive quarterly decline, falling 9.7 percent year-over-year to a Zillow Home Value Index of $202,966, according to the third quarter Zillow Real Estate Market Reports released today.

Craig Long LLC, a real estate law firm with offices in Cumming and McDonough, Georgia, announced today that Ashley Carroll has joined the firm as an associate attorney. In this role, Carroll will conduct closings and handle other general legal practice matters for the firm’s McDonough office.

Five financial trade associations released the results of an industry survey yesterday which examined more than 400 firms’ views of participation in the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Pending home sales in September fell on the heels of a strong gain a month earlier as credit tightened and economic conditions deteriorated, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The association released its Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) today, which is a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in September.

According to information released today from MORTECH LLC, a company that has provided research on lender attitudes and behavior and their use of technology for the last twenty years, early returns to the MORTECH 2008 survey show lenders overwhelmingly agree that the federal government had good reason to intervene in the operations of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when it stepped in and took conservatorship of the two companies on September 7 of this year.