Data

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on Thursday that sales of existing homes (including single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops) hit a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 5.15 million last month, up 2.4 percent from a downwardly revised June. Looking only at single-family homes, July sales improved 2.7 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted pace of 4.45 million but still fell 4.2 percent short of last year.

Real estate data site PropertyRadar reported a slight month-over-month gain in home sales across California in July, but not enough to bring activity up from last year. Sales for single-family homes and condos for the first seven months of 2014 year-to-date are at their lowest levels since 2008, the company said in its latest Real Property Report for the state.

Housing market trends kept their spring momentum in July—and are expected to remain solid in the months ahead, Realtor.com said Wednesday in its National Housing Trend Report for the month. For the first time since the start of the housing recovery in 2012, Realtor.com says the end of the annual peak buying season passed this year without any outside economic influences creeping in.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 1.4 percent seasonally adjusted bump in application volumes for the week ending August 15, a partial reversal from the 2.7 percent decline reported the week prior. While last week's results were lifted by improvement in applications for conventional mortgages, they were also weighed down by a 5.9 percent decrease in applications for government mortgages.

Despite a slight easing in credit standards, the percentage of loan applications closed in July slipped to a three-month low, Ellie Mae reported Wednesday in its monthly Origination Insight Report. Tracking loan applications initiated 90 days prior, the company calculated an overall closing rate of 57.7 percent last month, down from 60.7 percent in June and 57.8 percent in May.

According to figures released Tuesday by HUD and the Commerce Department, privately owned housing starts last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million, a 15.7 percent spike from June's upwardly revised rate of 945,000 and a 21.7 percent gain over the same month last year. While most of last month's improvement came from a surge in multifamily building, single-family starts posted a solid gain, rising 8.3 percent to 656,000.

Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko made projections on Monday for the rest of this year based on construction numbers reflected in Census and other government data that it collected from the past eight months and 2013. According to the company, construction is set to rise higher than year-over-year averages in major metropolitan areas like Boston, San Jose, and New York, with more major cities based in Texas.

The second quarter of 2014 saw fewer all-cash home sales than the first quarter as institutional investors backed off from the market. In a quarterly report released Tuesday, RealtyTrac reported all-cash transactions made up 37.9 percent of all single-family home and condo sales in April, May, and June, down from the first quarter's three-year high of 42.0 percent but up from 35.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

A second-quarter rebound combined with an upward revision for economic activity in the first quarter has given a boost to Fannie Mae's 2014 economic forecast. On the housing side, however, the company is less optimistic, downgrading its outlook "following the disappointing housing activity seen during the first half of the year," said Chief Economist Doug Duncan.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported on Monday a two-point increase in its Housing Market Index, a gauge of builder sentiment measuring current single-family new home sales, expected sales six months out, and volume of traffic from prospective homebuyers. As of August, the index measured 55, five points above the benchmark separating a market largely viewed as poor from one viewed as good.