Tag Archives: Housing Market

PAR's latest quarterly housing report shows closed sales statewide totaled 41,371 in Q3, up 5.1 percent from the previous quarter. Year-over-year, third-quarter sales fell short 1.1 percent.

Now that the overall economy is on more solid ground, Wells Fargo economists suggest that housing may soon follow in its footsteps, according to Wells Fargo's Housing Chartbook for October 2014 released on Thursday.

The index, which debuted over the summer, measures the stability of state and local trends as well as the national market in terms of home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, proportion of on-time mortgage payments, and employment strength. Those figures are set against each market's long-term stable range, with index values between 80 and 120 reflecting stability.

For the 12 months ending in July, FHFA reported house prices were up 4.4 percent. As of the latest index, the national HPI is now 6.4 percent below its peak in April 2007 and is roughly in line with its July 2005 level.

Two of the three component sub-indices improved through the summer: the measure of current market trends and conditions rose more than half a point to 62.7, while the measure of homebuying plans and attitudes toward homeownership climbed more than two points to 62.4.

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Ginnie Mae convened at the second annual Ginnie Mae Summit on September 22 to discuss initiatives and programs designed to create a healthy housing market.

That gain in younger household formations is expected to translate to $1.6 trillion spent on home purchases and $600 billion spent on rent in the next few years—more on a per-person basis than any other generation.

Beginning with the release of the June report last month, the monthly Case-Shiller reports now include an expanded national series going beyond the previously covered 20 markets. Previously, the national series was only released every quarter.

Improvements in the labor market in 2014 have not translated to widespread housing market recovery this year, according to the Fannie Mae August 2014 National Housing Survey. Instead, data in the survey indicated that recovery for the housing market will be slow heading into 2015. The number of people in the survey who said they believed now is a good time to sell a home fell six percentage points to 64 percent, an all-time low since the monthly survey began in June 2010. The number of people who said now is a good time to buy a home also declined to 38 percent.

Compared to a year prior, July's index was up 7.4 percent, barely down from 7.5 percent in June. As of the July report, the national HPI has risen year-over-year for 29 straight months.