Tag Archives: Home Prices

Oftentimes, when the idea of home affordability is calculated, the focus is on the monthly mortgage payment, and how to bring that particular number down through a modification or refinancing. One report assessed the burden of housing expenses combined with transportation costs to offer a more comprehensive view of what defines housing affordability. Overall, research results found moderate-income households, or households earning 50 to 100 percent of the median income of their metropolitan area, spent 59 percent of their income on housing and transportation costs in 2010.

The housing sector hit a speed bump in September as existing home sales dipped, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Existing home sales fell 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.75 million, the first decline in three months. The median price of an existing home was down 0.5 percent from August to $183,900, but the median price was up 11.3 percent from September 2011, the strongest year-year dollar increase since January 2006.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group expects economic growth to ""remain at a sluggish sub-2 percent rate this year."" While the outlook on the economy was uncertain, the assessment for the housing market was more stable. Despite an anticipated dip in home prices for the winter season, the research group maintains the viewpoint that prices hit bottom earlier this year. In addition to the bottoming out of prices, the GSE's research group said record low mortgage rates should encourage more consumers to enter the housing market.

With home prices down so far down from their peak and mortgage rates hovering around record lows, many analysts are saying home affordability could hardly be any higher. However, a study released by Interest.com shows homes are only truly affordable in about half of the nation’s major cities. Rising expenses and stagnant wages are preventing median-income households from being able to afford median-income homes, explained Mike Sante, managing editor for Interest.com.

The median sales price for homes sold in September continued to move higher yearly and monthly while sales were stalled from the previous month, according to a housing report from RE/MAX, which tracks MLS data in 52 metropolitan areas. The median sales price in September was $164,989, a slight 0.7 percent increase from August and a 7.8 percent improvement from September 2011. Home sales experienced a typical seasonal decline and dropped 17.5 percent from August.

Fitch Ratings is predicting a continued recovery into 2012, according to a recent report titled U.S. Homebuilding and Construction: The Chalk Line. A slowly growing economy combined with ""somewhat diminished distressed home sales competition, less competitive rental cost alternatives, and new home inventories at historically low levels"" led the ratings agency to predict growth for housing starts and home sales into 2012, with further moderate improvements into 2013.

A significant increase in home prices helped push Deloitte's Consumer Spending Index up in September, the company reported. The index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, rose to 3.53 from 3.27 in August. A substantial 10.5 percent bump in housing prices accounted for much of the overall increase.

Connecticut home sales improved in August, while the state's median sales price told a different story, a report from The Warren Group revealed.

It was no surprise when mortgage rates dropped in the weeks following the Fed's announcement that it would purchase $40 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) each month until the labor market shows substantial improvement. Even with the record-low mortgage rates seen today, refinancing numbers are still not as high as expected. CoreLogic and Capital Economics highlighted different factors for the lack of refinancings in separate reports.

Home prices in September were up 5 percent year-over-year while home sales posted a 4 percent annual increase, even as housing metrics began their typical seasonal declines, according to Redfin's analysis of activity across 19 major U.S. markets. Between August and September, these 19 markets saw prices decline just 0.8 percent, which Redfin says is a smaller decline than is customary at this time of year. At the same time, the number of homes for sale in the target markets was down 29.3 percent from September 2011.