Tag Archives: Home Sales

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.

In a release, Fitch Ratings maintains its cautious view of recent gains in home prices, suggesting recent news of rising prices and sales volumes "are not moving in sync with key economic indicators that would otherwise support a sustainable price level." One of those key indicators in unemployment, which has fallen in the past several years--partly as a result of fallout in labor force participation, not an improving employment situation, Fitch says.

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."

The seasonal surge in home sales combined with another drop in listings to further drive up prices in March, Redfin observed in its latest Real-Time Price Tracker.

With the price of a new home barely above year-ago levels, builder confidence fell for the third straight month in April, dropping two points to 42.

Prudential Real Estate released Tuesday the results of its first-quarter Consumer Outlook Survey, revealing Americans' sentiment toward real estate is growing more and more favorable.

Markets around the country suffered from inventory shortage in February, and Connecticut was no exception, according to data from the Warren Group.

Investor activity saw a decline last year as the median price for investment homes increased, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported.

Real estate agents are showing heightened optimism for housing as the market continues its swing toward sellers, Redfin observed in its latest Real-Time Agent Survey. According to brokerage's findings, the number of agents saying now is a good time to buy plummeted from 75 percent in Q3 2012 to just 57 percent in Q1 2013. At the same time, the number of agents saying now is a bad time to buy rose slightly, though the percentage is still low--5 percent in Q1 2013 compared to 2 percent in Q3 2012.

For February, DataQuick found home prices grew in 34 of the 42 counties on a monthly and quarterly basis.