Tag Archives: Home Prices

The real estate giant released its National Housing Report for August 2012 (covering July), showing that both sales and prices have posted year-over-year increases for most of 2012. Home sales appear to have peaked year-to-date in June, with July's sales falling 9.4 percent month-over-month. However, sales were up 10.3 percent from July 2011, marking the 13th consecutive month for year-over-year sales gains.

After surveying more than 1,800 active home sellers, Redfin found that some of its customers are holding back from selling now because they believe patience will pay off in the form of higher offers for their home. The survey revealed that 38 percent of respondents plan to wait more than a year before selling their home, while 25 percent said they plan on selling now. Homeowners also expressed optimism for future home prices, with 80 percent believing they are bound to get a higher price for their home after a year or two.

The California Association of Realtors (CAR) reported Friday that home sales and prices both showed strong gains in July, with the sales pace showing year-over-year growth for the fourth straight month and the median price reaching a four-year high. Leslie Appleton-Young, CAR VP and chief economist, said the gains in the last few months reflect a market shift toward higher-priced homes.

A working paper released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta suggests that foreclosures may not negatively impact nearby property prices as much as originally thought. The paper examines and refutes the argument long used by experts that mortgage foreclosures greatly reduce the sale prices of properties in the area. The study actually found while neighboring home prices do tend to sink when a property becomes distressed, the effect is only minor.

Despite a dip from June, July marked the seventh straight month for year-over-year increases in home sales in Southern California, DataQuick reported Tuesday. A total of 20,588 new and resale houses and condos sold in the region during the month, down 6.7 percent from June up 13.8 percent from July 2011. The month's sales were 19.4 percent lower than the average July total since 1988, when DataQuick's statistics begin.

Limited inventory may be boosting home prices, but buyer choices are stifled in an increasing number of markets, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. The association's latest quarterly report showed distressed homes accounted for 26 percent of Q2 sales, down from 33 percent in Q2 2011. NAR president Moe Veissi what is needed now is additional inventory in the lower price ranges, so the association hopes banks will be releasing more foreclosure inventory into the market.

As homeowners hold back from selling, home prices are benefiting, according to a report from Redfin, which tracked home prices in 19 U.S. markets. While prices remained flat month-over-month (-0.1 percent) from June to July, Redfin found prices rose 3.2 percent from July 2011 to July 2012. However, the number of homes for sale fell 28.1 percent during the same one-year period and also declined 5 percent from June.

The GSE released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for August on Wednesday, examining recent trends in home price indices and speculating on the impact of shadow inventory on home prices. While prices have shown positive growth in many states through this year, concerns about shadow inventory-the stock of single-family loans that are seriously delinquent-- have some experts worried about prices taking another tumble.

Weak growth characterized single-family home sales in Connecticut for June, according to a report from The Warren Group. Single-family home sales inched up 0.4 percent after seeing double digits increases in April and May. While the gain in June was small, it was still a move in a positive direction and represents the sixth consecutive month of increases.

To learn more about the NeighborWorks America Neighborhood Marketing Program, DS News asked Ascala Sisk, Senior Manager for Community Stabilization at NeighborWorks, a few questions about the effort. The new program is one of many initiatives from the nonprofit to rebuild communities.