Tag Archives: Home Sales

September's pending home sales point to a slow quarter during the final three months of the year. The National Association of Realtors says the numbers show buyers are struggling with declining levels of housing affordability. The trade group's pending sales index is a forward-looking indicator that's based on contract signings, not closings, and it has now fallen for four straight months.

Since 2011, investors have purchased more than 950,000 homes; and with 370,000 purchases so far this year, they have already surpassed the number of purchases they made in either of the past two years, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. In total, investors have spent $1 trillion acquiring single-family residences since 2011.

According to RE/MAX's National Housing Report for September, closed transactions fell 18.5 percent month-over-month, in line with the typical trend as summer passes into autumn. Year-over-year, however sales increased 10.7 percent, making September the 27th consecutive month in which sales rose on an annual basis. The company also reported a slowdown in the rate of inventory decline.

Mortgage rates are inching higher and higher, but the market does not seem to be paying any heed as it continues to show signs of improvement, according to the HousingPulse Tracking Survey released this week. It indicates the emerging slowdown in home purchases appears to be largely seasonal with a number of key indicators--distressed sales, time on market, and purchase offers--still in positive territory.

With third-quarter numbers from most of the industry's heavy-hitters in, analysts with FBR Capital Markets say their forecasts--$1.6 billion in mortgage volume for 2013 followed by $1.4 billion in 2014--are still well within reach, even though they argue that declining interest rates and lower overall loan volume translated to disappointing mortgage numbers last quarter.

Existing-home sales slipped in September after reportedly reaching their highest level in nearly four years in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. Analysts attribute the drop to declining affordability resulting from limited inventory and rising home prices. Total existing-home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.29 million last month. August's sales were revised downward to 5.39 million.

Many in the real estate industry believe there is a listing shortage, but a close look at the numbers suggests buyers in most markets are purchasing homes in increasingly larger volumes--even if some of those sales involve off-market homes not yet listed. Buyers and their real estate brokers are getting creative in buying off-market inventory in a number of ways.

Even with concerns elevated over the government shutdown, sentiment among contacts of the Federal Reserve Districts remained ""cautiously optimistic"" about the nation's economic future, according to the Fed's Beige Book released this week. Reports on regional housing activity were generally positive, with most markets growing or at least not faltering. The Philadelphia District was the one exception.

Mortgage rates broke their streak of declines this week. Analysts say while the potential drag from the government shutdown and looming debt ceiling deadline had pulled rates lower in recent weeks, hopes that a promising deal was in the works served to ease those concerns and push rates higher. Freddie Mac reports the 30-year rate rose from 4.23 percent to 4.28 percent over the last week.

August marks the 18th consecutive month of rising home prices, according to FNC's Residential Price Index released Tuesday, indicating an indisputable recovery. However, FNC, a mortgage industry technology provider, is detecting some deceleration in the recovery and declares, ""It is clear that the recovery remains uneven across the nation.""