Tag Archives: Home Prices

Zillow forecasts home values will be on the decline through December 2012, but the decrease will be smaller than in 2011. Home values in the U.S. fell in the fourth quarter, with the Zillow Home Value Index sinking 1.1 percent after a less significant decline for the two previous quarters. Zillow's report also shows that the rate of homes foreclosed on increased slightly to 8.2 out of every 10,000 in December, compared to 8 out of every 10,000 homes in November.

The number of housing markets showing measurable improvement expanded by 29 metros in February to include a total of 98 markets listed on the Improving Markets Index from First American and the National Association of Home Builders. The index tracks markets that are showing signs of improving economic health as measured by growth in employment and home price appreciation. Notable additions include Miami and Detroit. Washington, D.C. was dropped from the index this month as it showed a softening in home prices.

Data through the end of January released by Clear Capital Monday shows home prices in the U.S. are down 2.6 percent from a year ago. The company's rolling quarter assessment, which compares the four months through January 2012 to the previous three months, returned a 1.6 percent decline in home prices at the national level, after three months of stability. Clear Capital says the culprit is the Midwest market, which saw a dramatic turnaround in momentum in January and led the nation in quarterly losses.

Year-end data from CoreLogic shows home prices fell by 4.7 percent over 2011. It marks the fifth consecutive year the company has recorded an annual decline in residential property values. CoreLogic performed a separate calculation, which illustrates just how big an impact distressed sales are having on home prices. The company excluded all short sale and REO transactions from 2011 and found that when the distress factor is taken out, prices declined by just 0.9 percent.

The Appraisal Institute has released guidelines to instruct its members on how to deal with distressed sales and foreclosures when seeking comparables. According to the organization, some homeowners claim appraisers have undervalued their homes by relying on nearby foreclosed and distressed homes to assess a property's value. The Appraisal Institute stresses that qualified appraisers know what adjustments to make when using distressed sales as comparables, but because the issue is ""particularly crucial"" in the current market, it's offering additional guidance.

Data released Tuesday morning by Standard & Poor's for its S&P/Case-Shiller home price index showed declines in November of 3.6 percent for the 10-city composite and 3.7 percent for the 20-city composite when compared to price levels from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting a year-over-year drop in the range of 3.2 to 3.4 percent. Eighteen cities were in negative territory. Detroit and Washington, D.C. were the only exceptions. At -11.8 percent Atlanta continued to post the lowest annual return.

Fiserv is forecasting average U.S. home prices to fall by another 2.7 percent through the third quarter of 2012, before rising 3.8 percent by the third quarter of 2013. The company says the monthly mortgage payment for the median-priced U.S. home has dropped to $640, nearly 45 percent below the peak of the housing bubble. This improvement in housing affordability is expected to drive sales activity going forward, and while not enough to change Fiserv's predictions for the direction of prices at the national level, the company does foresee notable improvements in select markets.

The analysts at Capital Economics are holding fast to their forecast that the downturn in the housing market is drawing to a close. As a result, they say housing should soon start to boost economic growth, but as it now makes up only a small share of the economy, the sector is unlikely to add much more than 0.2 percentage points to annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year. In the fourth quarter of 2011, residential investment accounted for just 2.5 percent of overall GDP. That's down from the 2005 peak of 6.3 percent and the 1946 to 2008 average of 4.8 percent.

Seventy-two percent of homeowners say they are satisfied with homeownership, according to a recent HomeGain survey of more than 1,400 homeowners. Among the 28 percent who said they were dissatisfied, nearly two-thirds cited price depreciation as the main reason for their dissatisfaction. HomeGain also assessed satisfaction levels by sales type and found that homeowners who purchased a home through a short sale were the most likely to be pleased with their choice, followed by those who purchased a foreclosed home.

With vacant and deteriorating properties taking a toll on communities throughout Ohio and Michigan, 16 congressmen from the two states are proposing large-scale demolition as a means of easing the burden of these problematic properties, and they've petitioned President Obama for federal funding. They say some homes in Ohio are selling for 8 percent of their appraised value as a result of neighboring vacancies, and they cite a demolition project in Flint, Michigan, that preserved $109 million in property values among the remaining inhabited homes.