Tag Archives: Home Prices

Online marketplace Trulia released the latest findings from its Price and Rent Monitor reports, showing a shift in market trends as the housing market prepares for 2014. While price increases for the last few months have slowed down at the national level, numbers suggest the greatest drag is coming from the same markets that only a few months ago were giving the biggest boost to the market. "Price gains are cooling in 2013's hottest markets ... but heating up in markets that haven't been in the limelight," said Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko.

Sales of new single-family homes were at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual pace of 354,000 in September, Census and HUD reported. In October, the sales pace picked up to an estimated 444,000, an increase of 25.4 percent month-over-month and 21.6 percent year-over-year. As of month's end, the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale for 183,000, representing a 4.9 month supply at the current sales rate, the agencies reported.

Before the recovery, high volumes of distressed sales aligned with falling prices--but the script has flipped in the current market, Clear Capital says in a recent report.

CoreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) report for October shows the national home price (including distressed sales) rising 0.2 percent from September.

Following a trend maintained over the past nine quarters, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA's) Home Price Index (HPI) posted an increase over the third quarter. The index, which incorporates sales data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, rose 2 percent over the third quarter and 8.4 percent over the year. Also notable, the third quarter is the first time since 2009 that national home prices are higher than they were five years earlier, according to FHFA.

Home prices continued to advance in September, bringing third-quarter growth to 3.2 percent, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Tuesday. Both the 10- and 20-city component indices rose 0.7 percent month-over-month and 13.3 percent year-over-year in September. Since bottoming out in March 2012, the 10- and 20-city composites have recovered 22.9 percent and 23.6 percent, respectively; compared to their June/July 2006 peaks, both indices are down about 20 percent.

National home prices rose 0.2 percent over the month in September, reaching $232,000 for the month, according to Lender Processing Services' (LPS) Home Price Index, which was released Monday. Year-over-year prices rose 9 percent in September, according to LPS. Nevada and Connecticut posted the greatest price changes over the month--though in opposite directions. Home prices in Nevada jumped 0.8 percent over the month, while prices in Connecticut fell 0.9 percent.

In the third quarter, 1.4 million homeowners rose to the surface as their home values once again outranked their equity, according to the Zillow Negative Equity Report.

October saw existing-home sales decline for the second straight month as low inventory propped up prices, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Wednesday. Total existing-home sales fell 3.2 percent in October, coming out to an adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million. "The erosion in buying power is dampening home sales," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. "Moreover, low inventory is holding back sales while at the same time pushing up home prices in most of the country."

Next year will likely be the first year since 2000 that home purchases outpace refinances, according to Freddie Mac's expectations.