Tag Archives: Home Sales

The President has tried repeatedly to describe the impact of sequestration, a mandatory across-the-board cut in federal spending exempting only a small handful of social safety net programs. Despite those exemptions, a simple fact is that people will die as a result of these cuts, and lives could be changed irrevocably. The tragedy in this is not what might happen, although that's pretty severe long-term. The tragedy is both Democrats and Republicans have the means to fix it without having to resort to face-saving techniques.

Signs of expanding employment lifted the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, according to a release issued Friday.

Redfin's latest survey shows inventory shortage and rising prices are creating frustration for buyers trying to get in on the ground floor of the housing recovery.

Single-family home sales in Massachusetts rose more than 10 percent year-over-year in January, according to new data from The Warren Group. Single-family sales reached 2,680--the highest January sales level since 2007, when there were 2,953 transactions. January 2012 single-family home sales were 2,436.

New home sales jumped 15.6 percent in January--the strongest gain in 20 years--to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. The sharp increase in sales combined with steep price drops suggests builders are taking aggressive actions to pare inventories. Housing completions (as reported separately by Census and HUD) routinely exceed new home sales, and the gap between completions and sales has been widening.

Economic data for the week ending February 22--particularly for housing--was less than encouraging. A small increase in existing-home sales was the only bright spot, but that was weighed down by another drop in the median price of existing single-family homes to their lowest level in 10 months. The word "another" is critical because it means the drop in inventory in December did not result in higher prices. Indeed, the supply of homes for sale fell again in January, this time to the lowest level in 13 years.

Home values rose for the 15th consecutive month in January, according to Zillow's most recent Real Estate Market Reports.

The steady housing improvement seen in Illinois throughout 2012 is poised to continue in 2013, if January's numbers are anything to go on. According to the Illinois Association of Realtors, statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) totaled 8,502 in January, up 31.1 percent from 6,484 in January 2012.

Florida's housing market continued its upswing into the new year, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors. Statewide closed sales of existing single-family homes totaled 13,679 in January, up 11.7 percent year-over-year, the group reported. Meanwhile, pending sales--contracts signed but not yet completed or closed--for existing single-family homes rose 31 percent.

Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group is maintaining its outlook for slow and steady growth in 2013.