Tag Archives: Home Sales

On a national level, the relationship between building permits and foreclosure starts resembled that of a seesaw in the first quarter, with an equal but opposite rise and fall, but in some markets, both permits and foreclosures are on the rise, according to a report from RealtyTrac. After analyzing data from HUD, the online foreclosure marketplace found single-family building permits increased 27 percent year-over-year in the first quarter to the highest level in five years, while foreclosure starts fell 27 percent during the same time period to the lowest level since the second quarter of 2006.

In sharp contrast to reports of improving builder confidence, housing starts plunged at the steepest rate in more than two years in April, falling to a five-month low even as housing permits surged, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Thursday. The 16.5 percent month-to-month drop in starts to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 853,000 caught economists by surprise. The consensus forecast had been starts would fall--but to 969,000 from March's originally reported 1,036,000.

Despite still sluggish new home sales, builder confidence improved in May for the first time since December, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported Wednesday. All three components of the HMI improved in May. The reading on current home sales increased four points to 48 from 44 (revised from the initially reported 45), the outlook for sales in the next six months rose to 53 from 52 (revised down from April's reading of 53), and the measure of buyer traffic rose to 33 from April's unrevised 30.

Sales for single-family residences dropped in the first quarter of this year, marking the first decrease since the fourth quarter of 2010, The Warren Group reported. Single-family home sales in the state fell year-over-year by 3.5 percent to 4,067 in the first quarter. Although sales were down, prices were up. The median price for a single-family home in Connecticut rose by 9.3 percent to $235,000 in the first quarter, up from $215,000 a year ago.

The available supply of foreclosures and short sales previously stunted the recovery for new home sales, according to CoreLogic's May MarketPulse report. Though, now that the supply of distressed homes and existing-homes for sale has fallen, there's more room for the new home sales market to expand. Citing data from the Census Bureau, CoreLogic reported new home sales have increased 19 percent from a year ago in March. Most new home sales are also concentrated in hard-hit suburban metro areas, which bring an economic stimulus to areas devastated by the housing recession.

A report from Redfin shows 73 percent of offers in April faced competition, down from a peak of 79 percent in February but slightly up from 70 percent last April. Two markets that cooled from March to April were San Francisco and Washington DC, where bidding-war rates fell 0.8 and 5.8 percentage points, Redin reported. The report also found the most common components of a winning offer were: conventional loan (61.7 percent) and a higher-than-asking offer price (51.9 percent).

As the housing market improves, so has the income for Realtors, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Median gross income for Realtors increased 25 percent to $43,500 in 2012, up from $34,900 in 2011, the association reported. Most NAR members (56 percent) are licensed as sales agents, while 27 percent are brokers. The findings are from the 2013 National Association of Realtors Member Profile, which surveyed 58,068 NAR members.

""Fiscal policy,"" simply put, is the means by which a government adjusts its levels of spending in order to monitor and influence a nation's economy. At the heart of the spending/growth disparity is a philosophical debate over the role of government: those who believe government should be run like a business and avoid debt and those who see the role of government as spending counter-cyclically, that is increasing spending when the nation's economy is challenged to avoid further struggles. direct a country's economic goals.

While originations are down across the board, ""[t]he drop in originations has been most pronounced among borrowers with lower credit scores,"" said Federal Reserves Governor Elizabeth A. Duke. From 2007 to 2012, purchase originations among borrowers with credit scores higher than 780 declined by 30 percent. In contrast, purchase originations for borrowers with credit scores between 620 and 680 declined by 90 percent, and originations among borrowers with credit scores below 620 were ""virtually nonexistent,"" according to Duke.

Metro areas continued to post price gains in the first quarter, rising alongside national median price increases, the National Association of Realtors reported. Out of 150 metro areas the NAR tracks, 133 displayed price growth in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter a year ago. The association also provided first quarter data on national median prices and found the median price for an existing single-family home rose 9.3 percent year-over-year.