Tag Archives: Home Prices

Despite lackluster performance from the economic sector, the housing recovery will press on and stimulate overall growth, according to Freddie Mac's most recent economic and housing outlook.

While rising home prices across the nation may be good news as they imply recovering markets, the trend may dampen housing affordability.

Home inventories continue to decline in many markets across the country, but the pace of those declines appears to be slowing, which may in turn slow price appreciation in some markets, according to Realtor.com. National housing inventory declined 5.24 percent year-over-year in July, which is a slowdown from the 16.47 percent year-over-year decline reported in January. At the same time, the number of markets with declining inventory year-over-year decreased to 118 in July.

According to Redfin's Real-Time Demand Pulse for August, the brokerage's agents continue to report declines in both the number of customers touring homes and the number of signed offers.

Realtor.com released its list of the second quarter's top "turnaround towns" in terms of market recovery, and California once again dominated the list. More notable, however, was the presence of Detroit, which--despite its recent bankruptcy--showed a strong performance. In fact, Detroit may soon be "one of the most balanced markets in the nation," according to Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move, an online real estate network. The Motor City claimed the No. 7 spot after its inventory age fell to 45 days.

The national median home price showed its strongest year-over-year gain in more than seven years last quarter, according to the latest quarterly report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR's data shows the median price of an existing single-family home increased 12.2 percent year-over-year to $203,500--the largest improvement since Q4 2005. Prices were boosted by shrinking market share of lower-priced homes and distressed sales (which accounted for 17 percent of last quarter's sales).

Home values are on track to reach more than $167,000 by the end of 2013, according to economists and real estate experts surveyed by Zillow and Pulsenomics. According to Zillow, respondents predicted median home values will rise to $167,490 by the end of this year, a gain of 6.7 percent over 2012. The forecast is a significant jump from the 5.4 percent annual increase expected in the last quarterly survey. Based on current expectations, panelists on average predicted home values could approach new record highs by 2017.

Trulia reported a 0.3 percent decline in asking prices from June to July--the first drop since November 2012. While monthly changes can be volatile, Trulia explained the quarter-over-quarter change in asking prices confirms the slowdown, with July asking prices improving just 3.3 percent over the last quarter compared to the peak of 4.2 percent in April. Over the last year, asking prices were still strong, rising 11 percent, though Trulia noted the change won't be as apparent since the annual average is based on a longer time period.

The number of markets listed on the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Improving Markets Index (IMI) continued to decline in August, though the index still sits well ahead of where it was last year, the association reported. "While the number of improving housing markets this August remains well ahead of the same month last year, the index is affected by seasonal softening in home prices just as we saw happen in 2012," explained NAHB chief economist David Crowe.

CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) jumped 11.9 percent year-over-year in June, the company reported Tuesday. June's data falls short of the 13.2 percent growth projected in CoreLogic's Pending HPI for June. Month-over-month, June's index was up 1.9 percent from May, a full percentage point short of predictions (partially explained by a revision in May data). Looking ahead, the Pending HPI for July indicates home prices (including distressed sales) are expected to rise 12.5 percent yearly.