Tag Archives: Home Prices

While last year's rising home prices brought relief to many underwater homeowners, allowing many older homeowners with increased net worth to purchase new homes, they also precluded many young first-time buyers from purchasing, according to a report from BBVA Group. ""Older homeowners are increasingly able to purchase a new residence with cash only after they sell their current home,"" said Jason Frederick, an economist for BBVA Compass.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its latest quarterly reports Tuesday, highlighting deteriorating conditions for housing affordability as prices keep trending upward. The national median existing single-family home price was $196,900 in the fourth quarter, up 10.1 percent from $178,900 in the fourth quarter of 2012. As ever, the association says the increase was driven by a tight supply of existing homes and a decline in production of new houses.

What sort of affect has the technology boom had on housing affordability in so-called ""tech hub"" markets? In a recent blog post, Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko argues that a higher price of living isn't a new problem for most tech-centric metros. Instead, he says, these markets are experiencing the lasting effects of having been some of the worst-hit during the bubble's collapse, contributing to their relatively larger price rebounds compared to most the country.

Consumers apparently haven't gotten the memo that mortgage standards are tightening, if responses to Fannie Mae's January National Housing Survey are any indication: Fifty-two percent of respondents in the company's latest survey said they think it would be easy to get a mortgage today, reflecting a climb of 2 percentage points. The number of consumers saying it would be difficult to obtain a loan fell 3 points, meanwhile, dropping to 45 percent.

As of February, 58 out of approximately 350 metro areas nationwide have either returned to or exceeded their last ""normal"" levels of economic and housing activity.

CoreLogic's Home Price Index jumped 11 percent year-over-year in December, the company revealed in its newest report.

While most housing metrics ended 2013 on a promising growth path, mortgage origination volumes closed out the year on a decidedly sour note, Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) says in its year-end Mortgage Monitor Report. "[H]igher interest rates and seasonality pushed monthly originations to the lowest level since 2008, and the current interest rate environment seems to have also brought an end to the refinancing wave we've observed for the last several years," said Herb Blecher, SVP of BKFS Data & Analytics.

Despite experiencing a slight downturn--the first monthly decline in a year--home prices still turned in a strong performance in November.

Home prices edged up again in November as markets across the nation climbed a little closer to their pre-crash peaks--and others pushed up past them. The latest Home Price Index (HPI) report from Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) shows prices rising in November to a national index value of $232,000, up 0.3 percent from October. Coming out strong were Texas and Colorado, which climbed to $186,000 and $257,000, respectively--well above the levels they experienced during last decade's bubble.

New home sales softened for the second straight month in December, falling well short of expectations as harsh weather and declining affordability turned potential buyers off.