Tag Archives: Housing Affordability

House prices increased 9.7 percent year-over-year in January, continuing a recent trend, and prices show "no signs of an imminent slowdown," according to Capital Economics.

CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) saw its greatest yearly increase in nearly seven years in January, the analytics provider revealed Tuesday. Home prices nationwide--including distressed sales--rose on a year-over-year basis by 9.7 percent in January. The spike represents the biggest increase since April 2006, CoreLogic said. CoreLogic's Pending HPI, a metric measuring current trends in home prices, indicates that prices (including distressed sales) in February will likely match January's year-over-year improvement.

Housing affordability rose close 1 percentage point up to 74.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the NAHB's Housing Opportunity Index.

There are nearly 400 mandatory inclusionary housing policies designed to low-priced housing within market-rate developments.

According to the NAR, the depleting share of lower-priced homes is contributing to price growth as distressed sales--foreclosures and short sales--diminish. The association found the national median price for an existing single-family home rose to $178,900 in Q4, up 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. The increase marks the biggest year-over-year gain since the fourth quarter of 2005, when the median price was up 13.6 percent. Existing-home sales improved as well in Q4, rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.90 million.

Realtors in December expected prices to rise by about 3.5 percent over the next year, while consumer estimates were more modest at 2.5 percent for the same time period, Capital Economics noted in its monthly housing report. The estimates show a growing optimism among those groups. But, with the low supply of inventory, Capital Economics anticipates much bigger gains.

Home prices continued to inch up in November, according to Lender Processing Services' (LPS) Home Price Index (HPI) for the month.

According to commentary from Daniel Dektar, chief investment officer at Smith Breeden Associates, all the fundamentals are in place for a housing upturn - if pent-up demand can actually translate into buyer interest.

In November, the National Association of Realtors' Housing Affordability Index reached 198.2, up 1.5 points from a year ago. The association projects the index will achieve a record high of 194 for 2012. However, record high affordability doesn't necessarily translate into more homeowners, as "excessively tight underwriting precluded many would-be homebuyers from locking-in generational low interest rates," explained chief economist Lawrence Yun.

After measuring improvements over the two years, Trulia ranked Las Vegas as the top turnaround market in 2012 based on its recovery in asking prices. Trulia also found nine out of the top 10 turnaround markets were located West and Southwest, and the top six saw double digit increases. In 2011, only 12 out of 100 metros saw price increases compared to 82 in 2012. In addition, none of the 100 largest metros saw price declines greater than 10 percent in 2012 compared to 6 in 2011.