Tag Archives: Home Prices

While persistent price gains continue to dominate headlines, homes in a majority of major markets across the country remain slightly undervalued, quashing any concerns of a rising bubble, according to the latest data from Trulia. Nationally, homes remain undervalued by 3 percent compared with long-term fundamentals, according to Trulia's Bubble Watch.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its latest home price measure this week, reinforcing a theme of slowing increases reported in similar gauges. According to the agency, home prices showed no change month-over-month in April, down from an increase of 0.7 percent the month prior.

Florida's housing market had more new listings, an increase in median prices, and an uptick in inventory in May, according to Florida Realtors. "Right now, the market offers a great opportunity for sellers, who are seeing nearly 93 percent of their asking price at the closing table. And mortgage rates, though rising, remain historically low—giving consumers more buying power," said 2014 Florida Realtors president Sherri Meadows.

Sales of new single-family homes blew past all expectations in May even as prices and inventory continued to present a challenge. According to figures released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, new home sales last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000, representing an 18.6 percent spike above April's downwardly revised rate of 425,000.

In its latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report, S&P Dow Jones Indices recorded an annual price increase of 10.8 percent among both the 10- and 20-city composites. Those figures compare to year-over-year increases of 12.6 percent and 12.4 percent, respectively. A consensus of economists surveyed by Econoday called for a gain of 11.4 percent in the 20-city index.

Just ahead of Tuesday's S&P/Case-Shiller Indices report, Black Knight Financial Services released its own Home Price Index (HPI) for April, recording a slight dip in price increases compared to March. According to Black Knight, the company's latest HPI—based on April transactions—registered $236,000 for the entire United States, a monthly increase of 0.9 percent compared to March's 1.0 percent gain.

Existing-home sales rose in May at their highest monthly growth rate in years as inventory continued to expand, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. According to NAR, total existing-home sales jumped 4.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million. It was the biggest month-over-month boost since August 2011, when sales picked up 5.5 percent, the group reported.

Pro Teck Valuation Services released this week its May Home Value Forecast, concluding that most metros remain very affordable for housing despite ongoing price gains. "With some modest improvement in employment and still historically low mortgage rates, housing as a whole is affordable," said Pro Teck CEO Tom O'Grady. "The real problem for many potential home buyers is other debt such as student loans for first time buyers and tight credit."

The latest National Housing Report from RE/MAX found that for the third month in a row, home sales in May rose higher than sales in the previous month. "We've now seen three straight months of increased sales over the previous month—although we may not match the growth rates we saw last year, we are seeing significant increases in both sales and prices and that's a positive sign," said Margaret Kelly, RE/MAX CEO.

California home sales and prices were both on the rise in May, but the year as a whole still looks pretty grim for the Golden State. Compared to April, May home sales statewide increased 3.5 percent, according to real estate site PropertyRadar.com. Year-to-date, however, PropertyRadar reports sales are the lowest they've been since the start of the recession.