Tag Archives: Home Prices

Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate broker driven by technology, is finding some of the nation's top emerging markets in what the broker says are unlikely places. Redfin studied 48 emerging neighborhoods located within 16 major metro areas across the country to determine which neighborhoods showed the most promise in terms of price growth this year. Seven of the top 10 neighborhoods are located in California. The top neighborhood is Highland Park, located in Los Angeles.

REO sales no longer play the dominant role they once did in real estate transactions. The recent decline in REO sales, along with the decrease in inventory, is helping the market see an improvement in prices, according to a report from Corelogic. REO sales showed a 35 percent year-over-year decline in October 2012 and a 60 percent decrease from the April 2009 peak, CoreLogic revealed. Meanwhile, overall home sales increased 6 percent in 2012 to 4.2 million, with non-distressed sales seeing an 11 percent increase, CoreLogic reported.

Redfin's Price Tracker, a monthly report on prices, sales, and inventory across 19 U.S. markets, is based on local multiple listing services. According to the data for December, all three of the indicators tracked took a plunge during the holidays. According to Redfin, listings were down 11.5 percent from November and 33 percent from December 2011. The lack of selection proved to have a hindering effect on sales, which declined 4.1 percent from November to reach the lowest level in 10 months, Redfin reports.

FICO released a survey of bank risk management professionals to gather projections on where credit will be heading in the next 6 months. The study, which was conducted by the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA), found a little more than half of risk professionals (53 percent) expect mortgage credit to meet or exceed consumer demand into the first half of 2013. In the Q4 survey, 68.6 percent of professionals also said they believe the level of 90-plus mortgage delinquencies will decrease or stay the same, representing a 7.1 decline from the previous quarter.

The year 2012 is on its way to becoming the most affordable year housing has seen since recordkeeping began in 1970, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In November, the NAR's Housing Affordability Index reached 198.2, down 2.5 index points from October, but up 1.5 points from a year ago. Based on data up to November, NAR also projects the index will set a record high of 194 in 2012, beating the high of 186 in 2011.

The National Association of Home Builders reported the First American Improving Markets Index rose for the fifth consecutive month in January. The index reached 242 and once again, achieved a record high. The index measured 201 in December. According to the NAHB, the list of improving markets now includes entrants from 48 states and the District of Columbia. The only states not represented are Kansas and New Mexico.

National home prices finished 2012 with a strong yearly gain, but prices fell flat quarter-over-quarter in December, according to a report from Clear Capital. Prices in December saw a 0.9 percent quarterly increase, remaining mostly unchanged from the 1 percent quarterly improvement in November, Clear Capital reported. Year-over-year, national home prices grew by 4.9 percent. The data provider expects to see continued growth into 2013, but estimates the increase will be slower at 2.1 percent.

Consumers continued to show increased optimism toward home price, rental price, and mortgage rate expectations, a sign that home purchase activity may see a boost in the coming months, according to results from Fannie Mae's latest National Housing Survey. The average 12-month home price change expectation jumped from 1.7 percent in November to 2.6 percent in December, the highest level since the survey's inception in 2010. To compare, the average price change expectation a year earlier was only 0.8 percent. The share of respondents who believe home prices will rise over the next year also reached its highest recorded level, increasing 6 percentage points to 43 percent.

Despite the steady increase in home prices in 2012, Fitch Ratings says it ""remains cautious"" in its outlook on home values. According to a report from the ratings agency, home prices have risen ""at their greatest pace since 2005,"" but in certain markets, technical factors rather than ""fundamentals"" acted as the driving force behind the price gains over the past few quarters. Fitch explained technical factors such as low mortgage rates, the tight supply of existing homes for sale, and weak levels of new home construction are leading to affordability and driving demand while ""offsetting weak fundamentals.""

The year 2012 was a big year for certain markets as prices grew by leaps and bounds after seeing declines in 2011. On Thursday, Trulia released a report revealing changes in asking prices in 2011 and 2012 among the 100 largest metros. After measuring improvements over the two years, Trulia ranked Las Vegas as the top turnaround market based on its recovery in asking prices. Trulia also found nine out of the top 10 turnaround markets were located West and Southwest, and the top six saw double digit increases.