Tag Archives: Home Prices

Another spike in home prices drove Massachusetts sales down for the third straight month in April, according to the Warren Group. The group reported 3,504 single-family home sales in the Bay State in April, a 1 percent decline from last year. The median price for single-family homes sold in April was $313,000, a 14 percent year-over-year spike.

Over the last year, sales for distressed properties showed steep declines amid a backdrop of slower foreclosure activity and rising prices, according RealtyTrac's foreclosure and short sale report. The share of foreclosure-related sales represented 21 percent of all sales in Q1, down from 25 percent a year ago. At its peak in Q1 2009, foreclosure-related sales accounted for 45 percent of all sales. In addition, the share of properties that were not in foreclosure but sold as a short sale fell to 15 percent, down 10 percent from Q4 2012 and down 35 percent from a year ago.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose a disappointing 0.3 percent to 106.0 in April, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. Both the new homes sales and the pending home sales reports measure contract signings and are designed to be forward looking indicators. With the month-over-month improvement, the PHSI is 10.3 percent above April 2012, the strongest year-over-year gain since October when the PHSI was up 12.1 percent from a year earlier. The index has improved month-over-month in three of the last four months.

The Illinois Association of Realtors (IAR) reported sales were up 25.3 percent year-over-year throughout the state. According to the association, statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condos) totaled 12,621 in April, the best performance for that month since 2007.

In its latest reading on home values, Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) reported strong price gains in March and increases in every state and metro the data provider tracks. In dollar terms, the LPS Home Price Index (HPI) averaged $213,000 in March. The figure represents a 1.4 percent increase from February and a 7.6 percent improvement from March 2012. From January of this year to March, prices have climbed 2.9 percent.

Home prices posted their strongest yearly gain in almost seven years in March, with both the 10- and 20-city indices seeing double-digit gains, according to the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday. The national index, reported quarterly, was up 10.2 percent. From February to March, prices increased in 15 of the 20 cities surveyed, falling in two and staying flat in the remaining three. Month-over-month, the 10- and 20-city indices improved 1.4 percent in March, the fastest gain for each index since last July. The national index advanced 1.2 percent for the quarter.

Recent reports from the National Association of Realtors and the Census Bureau/HUD showed sharp increases in unit sales and prices, as well as increases in the inventory of homes for sale for April. Has housing turned the corner? Look again. Sales up, prices up, what's wrong with this picture? The last time both prices and sales of new homes increased in the same month was last September. In all of 2012, sales and prices moved in opposite directions in seven of the 12 months. What of course is missing from the two data sets is any indication of demand.

As institutional investor activity continues in California, PropertyRadar decided to take a look at who these investors are and their purchase patterns. To rule out smaller and individual investors, PropertyRadar tracked transfers in qualities greater than 10 from an LLC or LP. The firm reported LLC and LP purchases represented only 5.1 percent of transfer activity in 2012 and 4.5 percent in 2013. However, upon closer examination, PropertyRadar found institutional investor activity was mainly concentrated in certain counties.

According to Zillow, the national negative equity rate was 25.4 percent in the last quarter compared to 27.5 percent at the end of 2012. That percentage represents slightly more than 13 million homeowners with a mortgage, Zillow said. However, when including homeowners with less than 20 percent home equity, the ""effective"" negative equity rate climbs to 43.6 percent, or a total of 22.3 million homeowners. Zillow explained that these homeowners likely can't afford a down payment for a new home, tying them to their current homes and exacerbating the inventory shortage.

U.S. home prices appreciated at a strong pace in the first quarter as prices rose 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. The quarterly gain marks the seventh straight increase. Compared to the first quarter of 2012, prices were up by 6.7 percent, according to the FHFA's seasonally adjusted, purchase only House Price Index (HPI). From February to March, the index increased by 1.3 percent. FHFA also reported 41 states plus the District of Columbia experienced quarterly price gains.