Tag Archives: Home Prices

Asking prices are rising at an especially fast pace in the least affordable housing markets, according to Trulia. Nationally, asking prices increased 9.5 percent year-over-year in May, but in the ten least affordable metros, asking prices spiked 16.3 percent during the same time period. Among the least affordable markets, seven were in California. Honolulu was found to be the least affordable metro, where 74 percent of monthly household income is used to pay a mortgage.

Fixer-upper homes might be the solution for potential buyers who are having trouble with snagging a good deal in this low-inventory environment. According RealtyTrac's estimate, there are more than 51,000 of these discounted properties. To help buyers narrow down their search, RealtyTrac ranked the top 15 cities for fixer-uppers. Detroit, Michigan reigned as the best city to buy a fixer-upper. In the Motor City, RealtyTrac found there are 3,773 banked-owned properties built before 1960 that cost under $100,000.

A recent industry survey found rising home prices are impacting investor activity in a few ways--most notably encouraging them to hold properties longer and to decrease their purchase activity. The survey, conducted by ORC International, revealed more than half of investors plan to keep their investment properties for five years or more. Investors in these categories ""realize the benefits of rising rents and low vacancy rates,"" according to Chris Clothier, a partner at MemphisInvest.com and Premier Property Management Group.

The nation's economy grew at a ""modest to moderate pace"" from early April through the end of May, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. From late February through early April, the last Beige Book released described economic growth simply as ""moderate."" The sole bright spot in Wednesday's report was in the Dallas Federal Reserve District, which had ""strong economic growth."" The Beige Book reported slowdowns as a result of federal budget sequestration, which forced a mandatory cutback in spending.

While national home prices continue to post gains, Clear Capital's VP of research and analytics, Alex Villacorta, insists ""granularity in home prices remains key."" At a broad regional level, prices increased the most in the West (2.4 percent) and least in the Midwest, 0.7 percent. The South and Northeast fell in between with gains of 1.1 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. At the metro level, Las Vegas outpaced Phoenix as the metro with the greatest price gain on a yearly basis. Phoenix held this rank from April 2012 until now.

Home prices climbed higher for the 14th straight month and displayed another impressive double-digit annual gain, according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) report. When including distressed sales, prices were up 12.1 percent in April compared to a year ago CoreLogic reported the increase in April marks the biggest annual gain since February 2006. From March to April, home prices ticked up by 3.2 percent.

Despite improvements in home values, Radar Logic continues to contend the factors underpinning the recovery will not lead to sustainable price gains. In March, Radar Logic's home price index, which tracks 25 metro areas, showed a 13.1 percent year-over-year gain. Even with the double-digit gain, the data and analytics firm touched on several points to explain why the trend won't last, with the main one being the temporary issue of limited supply. Demand is also not expected to last since it is driven by low mortgage rates and institutional investors.

According to BEA, profits fell for both financial and non-financial corporations in the first quarter. For financial corporations, it was the fourth quarterly decline in profits in the last five quarters. The slip in financial corporation profits comes at a particularly critical time for the financial sector, as housing-so heavily dependent on lending institutions--is in the midst of a nascent recovery, and that recovery is causing concerns that we may be on the cusp of yet a new housing bubble. Recent data shows home prices rising at the fastest pace since the housing bubble burst.

Over 4.2 million single-family residential properties across 19 states are at risk of encountering hurricane-driven storm surge damage, according to CoreLogic's latest storm surge report. In a worst-case scenario situation, CoreLogic's analysis also found risk for property damage is valued at $1.1 trillion. Out of the over 4 million properties at risk, CoreLogic reported more than 976,000 of the homes are in an ""extreme risk"" zone, meaning they are at risk for damage from a hurricane of any category.

In some markets, the recent home price gains may actually be too rapid, leading to concerns of a market imbalance that could eventually stall or reverse the positive trend, according to an analysis from Fitch Ratings. While the unemployment rate is trending down and low mortgage rates are helping with affordability, certain areas are seeing prices accelerate far beyond job growth and incomes. This particular problem has been especially notable in markets that have not fully recovered from the previous bubble, which includes several cities in California, the agency found.