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Report: Conditions Indicate Home Value Growth in 2013

Conditions are ""ripe"" for home values in 2013, according to data collected by ""Realtor.com"":http://www.realtor.com/.

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Realtor.com's national housing data for January 2013 shows last year's trends are set to continue this year, creating opportunities in certain markets for both buyers and sellers.

At the national level, listing inventories decreased 16.47 percent year-over-year in January, dropping to their lowest level since January 2007, when Realtor.com began collecting this data. On a monthly basis, the for-sale inventory was down 5.63 percent.

""The significant year-over-year decline in homes for sale shows that the real estate market has worked through much of its excess inventory and, if these conditions continue, sellers are more likely to receive their asking price,"" Realtor.com said in a release.

Sellers don't appear to be taking advantage just yet, however: According to the data, the national median list price for single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and co-ops in January was $187,000, up only 0.80 percent year-over-year.

The low inventory did apparently have an effect on the average amount of time that homes spent on the market. [COLUMN_BREAK]

The median age of inventory of for-sale listings was 108 days in January, down 2.70 percent month-over-month and 9.24 percent year-over-year.

These factors all point to continued gains in value for the next year, said Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Realtor.com operator ""Move, Inc."":http://www.move.com/?source=web

""If inventories remain low and list prices begin to rise over the next few months, as they did last year, conditions will be ripe for additional markets to appreciate in 2013,"" Berkowitz said.

At the local level, Realtor.com also forecasts a continuation of 2012's trends--for better and for worse.

""States that were once at the center of the housing crisis, including Arizona, California and Washington, are continuing on upward trajectories. In several markets, particularly in California, home sellers are seeing a dramatic advantage when putting their homes on the market with some of the best prices in recent years,"" Realtor.com said.

However, ""markets in the older industrialized parts of the Midwest and the East will likely continue to struggle without a significant turnaround in their local economies.""

Realtor.com added that the recovery will continue to hinge upon a number of factors, including economic strength, cost and availability of financing, consumer expectations regarding price growth, and the success of loss mitigation efforts.

In terms of market balance, sellers appear to have the greatest advantage in the West, with Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco, and Phoenix taking four of the five top spots in Realtor.com's 2013 Best Sellers Markets. The one outlier was Washington, D.C.

Buyers, meanwhile, have it made in Asheville (North Carolina), Peoria (Illinois), Charleston (West Virginia), Philadelphia, and Cleveland.

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