Tag Archives: Home Sales

In its latest economic forecast, released Wednesday, Fannie Mae reported that housing remains the weakest link in the national economy. Through the first three months of 2014, existing-home sales, new single-family home sales, single-family housing starts, and multifamily housing starts all declined year-over-year.

According to the Commerce Department and HUD, privately owned housing starts last month were at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.07 million, representing a 13.2 percent jump from March’s barely revised pace of 947,000. Unfortunately for the supply-constrained single-family market, most of that spike came in apartment buildings, which were started at a rate of 413,000—a leap up from March.

Despite many beginning-of-the-year predictions about spring growth in the housing market falling flat, and despite a still chugging economy that changes its mind quarter-to-quarter, economists at the National Association of Realtors and other industry groups expect an uptick in the economy and housing market through next year.

A booming tech sector and overall job and income growth have helped fuel a real estate boom in San Francisco, according to a recent special commentary from the Wells Fargo Economics Group. The group found that the city's perennially tight housing market has gotten even tighter, pushing rents and home prices up.

According to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), year-over-year home price growth continued in most metros, albeit at a slightly lessened pace. The median existing single-family home price increased in 74 percent of measured markets.

The share of all-cash sales reached a new high in the first quarter of 2014, even as the total share of institutional investor purchases dropped to near-record lows. All-cash sales made up 42.7 percent of all U.S. residential property sales for Q1, up from 37.8 percent from the previous quarter, according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Institutional Investor and Cash Sales Report.

With concerns about employment easing, Americans are increasingly optimistic about the housing market, reports Fannie Mae in its April National Housing Survey. And, according to the mortgage buyer, this climbing optimism may foreshadow an upswing in housing activity through the summer months.

In a survey of more than 2,000 adults, Trulia found an estimated 41 percent “would strongly or somewhat prefer” to buy a new single-family home over an existing one, assuming the prices were equal. Just more than one in five respondents—21 percent—said they would prefer an existing home, while 38 percent expressed no preference.

Despite a lackluster Spring that went against analyst's projections, CoreLogic's Home Price Index reported that home prices, including distressed and non-distressed sales, still rose from February to March by 1.4 percent. Without distressed sales, the HPI still reflected positive gains for the month, up 0.9 percent month-over-month.

Clear Capital recently released its Home Data Index Market Report, which found the best deals in the housing market now reside in the middle-tier of available homes. The group found that following more than two years of recovery, low-tier homes are no longer the best value for homebuyers.