Tag Archives: For-Sale Homes

Texas' real estate market experienced a healthy first quarter, picking up right where 2012 left off, the Texas Association of Realtors revealed in its latest Quarterly Housing Report.

Gains in home prices over the last year haven't provided enough lift to offset the headwinds holding the recovery down, but that might not be such a bad thing.

The nation's homeownership rate fell to 65 percent in the first quarter of 2013, according to data from the Census Bureau.

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March, the highest level in almost three years, the group reported.

The numbers and headlines last week offered mixed signals: Existing-home sales dropped month-to-month as the median price increased, while another report showed new home sales fell as the median price increased.

According to responses collected by Redfin, 45 percent of sellers believe now is a good time to sell, up from just 22 percent in the first quarter and 15 percent in last year's fourth quarter. At the same time, 44 percent say now is a good time buy, down from 54 percent last quarter. Having survived the slower cold season, homeowners were also a little more optimistic about future home price increases. Seventy percent of those surveyed expect prices will rise "a little" in their area in the next year, while 15 percent anticipate prices will rise "a lot."

While other states spent March gearing up for a busy spring season, Massachusetts saw a decline in sales throughout the month, the Boston-based Warren Group reported.

After experiencing the sharpest drop in two years in February, new home sales increased 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 in March, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected March sales to increase to 419,000 from a February's originally reported 411,000. The median price of a new home, according to the Census-HUD report, plunged $17,900 (or 6.8 percent) in March to $247,000, the largest month-over-month decline since February 2011.

According to RE/MAX's National Housing Report for March, closed transactions climbed 27.8 percent month-over-month, starting the selling season off strong. Year-over-year, sales were up 2.9 percent, making March the 21st straight month to see higher sales than the previous year. Months Supply of homes fell to 3.8 in March, down 29.5 percent year-over-year and the lowest level recorded since RE/MAX's National Housing Report began in August 2008.

Despite threats from the federal budget sequester, the nation's economy expanded "at a moderate pace" from late February to early April, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its periodic Beige Book. Reports on mortgage lending, the Beige Book said, "were mostly favorable" with stronger refinancing activity in New York and Atlanta. The Cleveland and Kansas City districts, according to the report, "noted a shift from mortgage refinancing to new purchases," and New York, Richmond, Dallas, and San Francisco "reported an uptick in residential mortgage loans."