Tag Archives: Home Prices

Home prices will increase over the next three years as the economy expands and servicers work through their distressed inventories, according to a report from Moody's Analytics. Home prices will rise about 4.2 percent between the fourth quarter of last year and the fourth quarter of 2015, Moody's projected. The firm also anticipates foreclosures will have less of a hold on home prices in years to come as ""fundamentals that normally drive house prices"" come back into play, including ""job growth, demographics, affordability, and supply conditions.""

After months of robust and largely unsustainable annual home value appreciation, the national housing market finally showed signs of moderation in this year's first quarter, Zillow reported Thursday. Quarterly home value appreciation in the fourth quarter was 2.1 percent--indicating the market is slowing down to a more sustainable pace, says Zillow chief economist Dr. Stan Humphries. Looking ahead, the company's Home Value Forecast shows national home values rising 3.2 percent through March 2014, an annual appreciation rate more in line with historic norms.

The economic recovery, which began in 2009, has brought disproportionate gains to the wealthiest Americans, while the majority of households experienced a decline in worth, according to research released this week from the Pew Research Center. The top 7 percent of households--measured in terms of household wealth--experienced a 28 percent increase in net worth from 2009 to 2011, while the remaining 93 percent of American households experienced a 4 percent decline in worth, according to Pew.

The broadening housing recovery has firmed up home prices around the country, with the potential to restore many underwater mortgages to a position of positive equity, according to Fannie Mae's economic and strategic research group. Citing data from CoreLogic, the GSE notes that 1.7 million properties moved from negative to positive equity last year. Provided the home price gains seen so far this year continue, Fannie's economic analysts anticipate another 1.8 million properties will rise out of their underwater positions by the end of 2013.

Over the past couple years, rentals of single-family homes have served as a growing segment of the housing market. However, lately limited supply and rising home prices are leading to rising rents, thus slowing growth in this market, according to a report from CoreLogic. Having been on the decline since 2009, single-family rental properties now have about a 2.9-month supply available on the market. For comparison, anything below six months supply in the purchase market is considered low. The result of tight supply, naturally, is rising prices.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released Tuesday its House Price Index (HPI) for February, revealing home prices rose 0.7 percent month-over-month on a seasonally adjusted basis. Year-over-year, U.S. house prices were up 7.1 percent in February, according to FHFA. As of February, the U.S. index rested at 196.3, 13.6 percent below its peak in April 2007 and was roughly the same as its October 2004 reading. FHFA's index has not declined on a monthly basis since January 2012.

After experiencing the sharpest drop in two years in February, new home sales increased 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 in March, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected March sales to increase to 419,000 from a February's originally reported 411,000. The median price of a new home, according to the Census-HUD report, plunged $17,900 (or 6.8 percent) in March to $247,000, the largest month-over-month decline since February 2011.

Illinois experienced an increase in home sales and median prices over year ago levels in March, the Illinois Association of REALTORS reported. Home sales last month totaled 10,992, up 13.6 percent from March 2012 when sales were at 9,679. At the same time, median prices in the state showed a 3.6 percent improvement from last year, the association reported.

The infectious optimism surrounding the housing market has the majority of Americans feeling more positive, according to survey results from Gallup. Gallup found 51 percent of those surveyed said they expect home prices to rise in their area over the next year--the first time since 2007 that that number has been above 50 percent. Last year, only 33 percent of respondents gave the same answer. In this year's survey, 34 percent of Americans said prices will stay the same--down from 44 percent last year--while 14 percent said prices will fall, down from 23 percent.

With a sharp jump in prices, existing-home sales fell 0.6 percent in March--the steepest drop since December--to 4.92 million units, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. Economists had expected a 1.0 percent increase to 5.03 million from February's original report of 4.98 million sales. The median price of an existing single-family home jumped to $184,300, the highest level in seven months. The inventory of homes for sale edged up to 1.93 million units--a 4.7 month supply, both the highest level since November.