Tag Archives: Home Prices

According to the latest market data on the Baltimore-Washington metro housing market, RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI) reports that pricing patterns are stabilizing while sales activity continues to slump. RBI's data reveals that the median home price in the Baltimore-Washington metro area has remained constant at $265,000, unchanged from October 2010 and 4.7 percent higher than $253,000 in November 2009.

The research firm CoreLogic says the share of mortgage borrowers who owed more on the loan than their home was worth shrank during the third quarter. But analysts say the news is hardly encouraging since the decline is being attributed to a rise in foreclosures rather than a rise in home prices. CoreLogic reports 10.8 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with mortgages were in negative equity at the end of Q3, down from 11.0 million, or 23 percent, three months earlier.

The November home market report from Clear Capital shows that prices nationally fell another 5.8 percent over the previous three months. The company says although the pace of decline has slowed, home prices show no signs of bottoming out yet. Thirteen of the 50 major metros in the study have already entered into double-dip territory, indicating that their current price levels are the lowest since the housing downturn began. Among them are Vegas, Seattle, Tucson, Philadelphia, and several major Florida markets.

According to analysis from the research firm Zillow, U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $1.7 trillion in value this year. Since the market peaked in June 2006, the company says homeowners have been stripped of $9 trillion in equity. To put things into perspective, Zillow cites a report by the Congressional Research Service, which says from 2001 to September 2010, the war in Iraq has cost the United States $750.8 billion. That means the value lost in residential property values since mid-2006 exceeds the cost of 12 Iraq wars.

Americans continue to grapple with uncertainty about the housing market, with 58 percent of U.S. adults expecting recovery to be at least another two years away. Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac and Pete Flint of Trulia are of the same mind as consumers. They peg the housing recovery to begin taking shape between 2013 and 2014. The robo-signing debacle has left most consumers mired in distrust of banks and the government. The industry experts say its effect on REO sales will be minimal, but the impact on consumer confidence could be especially damaging.

The sharp fall in residential property prices in the third quarter means that housing in the U.S. has become even more undervalued. Based on the latest readings of two closely watched industry gauges, the analysts at Capital Economics have concluded that house prices are now 14 to 17 percent undervalued relative to disposable income per capita. A 30-year high in housing affordability hasn't been enough to drive consumer demand, and the research firm says recovery appears to have stalled before it even really began.

Recently released information from Radar Logic claims home prices experienced a much sharper decline than the decline shown in other companies' reports. Radar Logic's September housing market report released on Thursday shows the composite index of home prices experienced a 2.7 percent decline from the previous month. Radar Logic asserts that its data, which is compiled from measurements of 25 metropolitan statistical areas, shows that the housing market is weaker than it might appear.

New data released by RealtyTrac Thursday shows that distressed homes - including those in default, scheduled for foreclosure auction, and REO - accounted for 25 percent of all U.S. residential sales during the third quarter. These properties sold at an average of 32 percent below the price of their non-distressed counterparts. The company tracked 113,933 REO sales during the July to September period and 74,815 pre-foreclosure, typically short sale, transactions.

The Las Vegas region experienced a dip in home sales and median sale price in October, according to new figures from MDA DataQuick. A total of 3,961 new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area in October, down 7.4 percent from September and down 21.8 percent from a year earlier. The overall median sale price for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the region dropped nearly 4 percent from a year ago to its lowest level in more than a decade.

Home prices in the United States fell 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010, breaking what had been a trend of fairly steady gains since early last year, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday. The company's closely watched national index had recorded quarter-over-quarter increases in four of the last five three-month periods, including a 4.7 percent rise in the second quarter of this year. Many analysts are expecting that dreaded double dip to set in before next spring.