Tag Archives: Zillow

According to Zillow's second-quarter Real Estate Market Reports, the U.S. Zillow Home Value Index (HVI) rose to $161,100 as of the end of June--up 2.4 percent quarter-over-quarter and 5.8 percent year-over-year. The second quarter's increase was the largest annual gain since August 2006 and the largest quarterly gain since the fourth quarter of 2005--as well as the second-largest quarterly gain since 2004. Over the next 12 months, Zillow forecasts an additional 5 percent increase in home values.

A recent survey by Zillow Digs found 60 percent of respondents have some kind of plan in the works for a home improvement project this summer. The median budget for homeowners who are planning projects was $1,200, though owners with children and those 54 years of age and younger plan to spend a bit more, with a median of $1,500. To get ideas for projects, online sources were the most frequently utilized, with 37 percent turning to the web for inspiration.

Zillow expects prices will continue their upward trajectory in the short-run with a 4.1 percent increase over the following 12 months. However, as inventory increases and interest rates rise, "some demand may also ebb," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist. These predictions prompted the economist to advise, "Enjoy it while it lasts, because the housing market will undoubtedly look very different a few years down the road from how it appears now."

The overall number of listings on Zillow was down 12.2 percent year-over-year at the start of June, an improvement from the 17.5 percent shortfall recorded in January.

The number of homeowners underwater on their mortgages continued to fall in Q1, but millions still lack enough equity to afford to move, Zillow revealed in its first-quarter Negative Equity Report. According to the report, the national negative equity rate was 25.4 percent in the last quarter compared to 27.5 percent at the end of 2012. However, when including homeowners with less than 20 percent home equity, the "effective" negative equity rate is 43.6 percent, or 22.3 million homeowners.

Mortech, headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, rolled out additional features to its Connect Plus borrower contact and management tool.

Zillow's Home Value Index climbed to $158,300 for April, an increase of 0.5 percent month-over-month and 5.2 percent year-over-year. April marked the sixth consecutive month in which home values appreciated more than 5 percent on a yearly basis. "In the short-term, this has been welcome news for homeowners. But in the long-term, this cannot be sustained, and consumers entering the market today should not expect this kind of appreciation to last," said Zillow chief economist Dr. Stan Humphries.

Many of today's would-be owners are woefully unprepared and misinformed when it comes to taking out a mortgage, Zillow discovered in a recent survey.

Only 4 percent of respondents in a recent Zillow survey are not at all worried about a bubble resulting from the Fed's monetary policy that is keeping mortgage rates down.

Zillow's Home Value Index (HVI) rose to $157,600 as of the end of Q1, up 0.5 percent over Q4 2012 and 5.1 percent over the same time last year. Quarterly home value appreciation in the fourth quarter was 2.1 percent--indicating the market is slowing down to a more sustainable pace, says Zillow chief economist Dr. Stan Humphries. Looking ahead, the company's Home Value Forecast shows national home values rising 3.2 percent through March 2014, an annual appreciation rate in line with historic norms.