Tag Archives: Home Prices

Ever since home prices bottomed out, increases in Nevada, Arizona, California, and Florida have outpaced the country. At the same time, however, homebuilding has remained "very subdued."

Last year's housing market was defined by two distinguishing factors: low inventory and rising prices; but both trends began to ease at the end of the year.

LendingTree released recently the results of an online survey conducted near the end of the last year. According to the findings, more than two-thirds--69 percent--of respondents have a positive outlook on housing this year, and 63 percent hold a similar view for the economy at large. With hopes this high, 71 percent of respondents said they are considering selling their home in 2014. Out of that group, the majority said they would have to see their home's value increase before acting.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) monthly House Price Index (HPI) slowed its upward march substantially in November, rising only 0.1 percent compared to October's 0.5 percent. November's increase marked the 22nd straight monthly gain in FHFA's purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. As of the end of the month, the U.S. index was 8.9 percent below its April 2007 peak, resting at roughly the same level as it was in April 2005.

Existing-home sales finished 2013 with a slight increase, closing the book on the strongest year for sales since 2006, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. Total existing-home sales--including all completed transactions of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops--increased 1.0 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.87 million last month. For all of last year, NAR estimates there were 5.09 million existing-home sales, a 9.1 percent improvement from 2012.

While the housing market is still far from normal, it is inching that way, according to a report released Thursday from Zillow. Last year's skyrocketing home price appreciation, frenzied demand from investors, and high tide of negative equity are all expected to subside somewhat this year, according to the real estate company. In fact, some of the markets that posted the highest price gains in 2013 are already slowing, a welcome sign for those that were at risk of crossing into "bubble territory."

Following a year of fast-paced appreciation, Fitch Ratings expects home price gains to slow to a more moderate pace in 2014 in the United States.

Homebuyers hoping for more inventory and greater variety in December didn't get their wish, online brokerage Redfin reported in its latest Real-Time Price Tracker. According to the company's data, the total number of for-sale homes dropped to just below 200,000 in the final month of 2013--a monthly drop of 14.1 percent. While declines are normal for the season, December's decrease was the steepest since at least 2008, says Redfin analyst Tommy Unger.

In its latest forecast, analytics firm Veros Real Estate Solutions predicts home prices will rise on average 5.1 percent for the nation's top 100 metro areas. The company's previous 2014 projections, released last quarter, called for 4.8 percent growth. "The future HPI [Home Price Index] forecast continues to show good appreciation, but the markets appear to be topping out for now," said Eric Fox, Veros' VP of statistical and economic modeling and author of the company's VeroFORECAST.

The housing market has made great strides in recovering from the problems that ail it, but there are still major improvements that have to occur before it's back up to full health, Freddie Mac says in its latest Economic and Housing Market Outlook. The GSE's outlook focuses on four things the market needs to see before it can say the crisis is well and truly behind it: a healthy jobs market, mortgage delinquencies back down to historical averages, home prices consistent with payment-to-income ratios, and home sales more in line with historical norms.