Tag Archives: Housing Supply

In October, home prices and sales increased compared to 2011 levels, while inventory remained a concern, RE/MAX revealed in a recent report. The median sales price in October 2012 stood at $158,900, a 3.7 percent decrease from September but a 2.1 percent increase from October 2011. Home sales managed to post increases both yearly and monthly in October, which RE/MAX says is ""an impressive performance since seasonal patterns typically see a slight drop from September to October.""

The housing market is slowly but surely getting back up to speed, but don't expect it to recover to peak levels, Freddie Mac says in its latest U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook. In the November outlook, Freddie Mac takes into account recent trends, housing indicators, shifting demographic patterns to put together a picture of what makes a ""healthy"" housing market.

Demand in the single-family rental market continues to expand even as inventory tightens, according to the latest MarketPulse report from CoreLogic. Comparing lease rates, supply, pricing, and the ratio between bid prices and asking prices clearly demonstrates an increasingly tightening market. Currently, the greatest amount of growth is occurring in North Port, Florida; Cape Coral, Florida; and Honolulu.

A lower supply of inventory and fewer distressed sales led to stronger home price gains across the country, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed in a recent report. The median price for existing single-family homes increased 7.6 percent to $186,100 in the third quarter of this year compared to last year. NAR says the annual gain is the strongest since the first quarter of 2006 when the median price was up 9.4 percent. Total existing-home sales rose 3.2 percent quarter-over-quarter to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million.

In September, home prices improved in nearly all of the largest counties throughout the United States as tracked by DataQuick. According to the company's new Property Intelligence Report (PIR), home prices grew in 40 out of 42 counties month-over-month, while prices improved in all 42 counties from the previous quarter and over the last year. DataQuick suggested the PIR is displaying evidence the recovery in housing is underway, but the PIR found an uneven recovery, with some areas facing risk factors, such as high REO inventory.

While distressed sales continued to languish in California, equity sales, or non-distressed sales, firmed up and reached a four-year high in September, according to a report from the California Association of Realtors. The share of non-distressed sales in September accounted for 63 percent of all sales compared to 62.2 percent in August and 50.8 percent in September 2011, C.A.R. reported.

Home prices reached a sustainable bottom during the first quarter of this year, according to Barclays' U.S. residential credit strategy team. In many markets, longer-term affordability measures point to equilibrium, the firm's analysts contend. While the floor appears to have materialized, they stress that home prices are likely to recover slowly over the next 4 to 5 years, increasing on average 3 to 4 percent annually. At that rate, Barclays' analysts explained, home prices will remain below their 2006 pre-crisis peaks until June 2021.

Florida's housing market was hot to end the summer, according to housing data released by Florida Realtors. As national home sales and prices showed mixed results for September, Florida's market posted higher sales, higher pending sales, higher median prices, and a slightly down inventory for the month.

With home prices down so far down from their peak and mortgage rates hovering around record lows, many analysts are saying home affordability could hardly be any higher. However, a study released by Interest.com shows homes are only truly affordable in about half of the nation’s major cities. Rising expenses and stagnant wages are preventing median-income households from being able to afford median-income homes, explained Mike Sante, managing editor for Interest.com.

The median sales price for homes sold in September continued to move higher yearly and monthly while sales were stalled from the previous month, according to a housing report from RE/MAX, which tracks MLS data in 52 metropolitan areas. The median sales price in September was $164,989, a slight 0.7 percent increase from August and a 7.8 percent improvement from September 2011. Home sales experienced a typical seasonal decline and dropped 17.5 percent from August.