Tag Archives: Housing Market

A recent study conducted by Trulia shows that while Democratic- and Republican-leaning U.S. markets were affected similarly by the housing crisis, the most pressing current issues of the housing industry seem to be more severely affecting Democratic-leaning metros.

Where the U.S. housing market is concerned, Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan said he is anticipating overall weaker home sales in 2014 than in 2013. But he expects that overall home sales in 2015 will post their best performance since 2007 despite seeing only moderate growth for the year.

The steep decline in the number of marriages in the U.S. among the population aged 25 to 29 has been a key factor in the slow recovery of the housing market, according to a report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting (JBREC).

The number of listings last month was approximately 1.87 million, down 2.7 percent annually and 7.9 percent monthly. The decline compares to Redfin's latest analysis, which showed an unexpected bump in inventory from new listings. Redfin's data measures a narrower list of markets nationwide.

According to RealtyTrac's 2014 Election Housing Market Scorecard released on Tuesday, 33 out of 35 counties in Colorado with sufficient housing data to score ranked in the "better off" category, meaning that the housing market in those counties is better off than it was two years ago.

A total of 811 U.S. county housing markets (52 percent) were rated as "better off" than they were two years ago, compared to only 11 percent (176 markets) categorized as "worse off," according to RealtyTrac's 2014 Election Housing Scorecard released on Tuesday.

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.