Tag Archives: Home Sales

Home prices ticked up by 0.9 percent year-over-year, according to Lender Processing Services. The Florida-based analytics and technology provider revealed that prices also rose by 0.7 percent month-over-month. Home values climbed by $203,000 on average, reflecting a 0.7-percent uptick from $202,000 last year.

Despite recent gains, homeowners still feel antsy about the housing market, with 4 out of 5 home-owning Americans unlikely to buy or refinance their homes, according to a recent poll. Union Plus, an arm of the AFL-CIO, conducted the survey with Harris Interactive. The findings? Only employees between ages 18 and 34 felt interested in making a housing investment over the next 12 months.

Homes are spending less time on the market as supply conditions tighten, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Wednesday. The median time homes stayed listed was down 29.6 percent to 69 days in July compared to 98 days in July 2011. While the overall median is down, the report stated one in five homes bought in July stayed on the market for at least six months.

While home prices remained little changed, the REO saturation rate fell for the first time this year, according to Clear Capital's Home Data Index Market report, which included data to the end of August. The REO saturation rate, which calculates the portion of REO sales relative to total sales, slipped 6.4 percentage points from the previous quarter to 20.5 percent. The drop is the lowest the REO saturation rate has been since April 2008.

A study completed by the University of Miami School of Business Administration suggests that fragile market bubbles could be prevented if the public were aware of how assets are valued. The research, set to be published in the Journal of Financial and Qualitative Analysis, analyzed China's 2007 stock market. The study found that stocks with a bigger amount of analyst coverage experienced significantly smaller bubbles than those that weren't covered as well.

Prices went up for foreclosure-related sales on a quarterly and yearly basis, with the annual increase marking the first rise in two years, according to RealtyTrac's Q2 foreclosure sales report. The average price for foreclosure-related sales stood at $170,040, a 6 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 7 percent hike from the second quarter of 2011. The annual increase is the first since the second quarter of 2010 and the biggest yearly increase since the fourth quarter of 2006.

After a month of weekly increases, mortgage rates followed Treasury bond yields down this week. Freddie Mac reported that the 30-year fixed averaged 3.59 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending August 30, down from 3.66 percent in the previous week's survey. Bankrate's survey showed that the 30-year fixed average took a substantial tumble, falling to 3.80 percent from 3.91 percent before.

Sales of single-family homes in the Bay State continued their steady rise in July, The Warren Group reported Tuesday. A total of 4,979 single-family homes sold statewide in July, up from almost 27 percent year-over-year. This July was the best for sales volume since 2005, when sales reached 6,672.

In another positive sign for the housing sector, the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 2.4 percent in July to 101.7, its highest level since April 2010, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. Economists had expected a 1.0 percent increase to 100.3.

According to Radar Logic's RPX Monthly Housing Market Report for June, sales of homes at foreclosure auctions and REO sales by financial institutions fell to their lowest share of sales since 2008. The fall in distressed sales led to an overall year-over-year gain in the RPX Composite price, which measures statistics in 25 metropolitan areas. However, Radar Logic warned that price gains made in the first half of the year may not last.