Tag Archives: Home Prices

Homes.com released its Local Market Index for March, recording year-over-year price gains in all 100 of the country's top markets and in each of the additional 200 midsize markets surveyed. The most recent increases brought another handful of markets up to a full recovery, with a total of 102—35 of the largest and 67 midsize—rebounding completely. Another 57 percent of surveyed markets have come back at least halfway from their lowest recessionary price.

April sales of Massachusetts single-family homes dropped 2.3 percent compared with the same month last year, according to the latest from the Warren Group. Timothy M. Warren Jr., CEO of the Warren Group, said, "[I]t is a bit of a surprise that we are not seeing more forward momentum," but also noted while these sales might have "closed in April ... the buyers were shopping and negotiating back in February, the middle of a brutal winter."

Home prices and inventories moved more in balance with each other across the country in April, according to the latest National Housing Trend Report from Realtor.com. The company believes the bumps in both inventory and asking price suggest a strengthening national economy.

Despite disappointing home sales in the first quarter of the year as winter storms took their toll, home prices increased 1.3 percent over the first three months of the year on a seasonally-adjusted basis for the purchase-only market, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). FHFA's principal economist, Andrew Leventis, cited "modest inventories of homes available for sale" as a major factor in the first-quarter increase.

While home sales have largely struggled so far this year, there's one market segment that's actually holding up well, according to Redfin: the very highest price tier. "For the top 1 percent, the housing market is still booming," said Redfin analyst Troy Martin in a blog post. "But for the rest of the market, the recovery is running out of gas."

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released Tuesday, recorded a seasonally adjusted 1.2 percent monthly rise in prices across 20 of the country's top markets. Compared to a year ago, March prices were up 12.4 percent, a step back from the 12.9 percent annual increase recorded in February. "The year-over-year changes suggest that prices are rising more slowly," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

According to the latest from Black Knight Financial Services seven of the 40 largest metro areas hit new peaks in March, suggesting that perhaps a sluggish first quarter is on its way to rebounding in time for summer. Overall, the company recorded a 1.0 percent monthly increase in prices nationwide, bringing the index within 12.8 percent of its 2006 peak.

Home prices have risen in Florida for 29 consecutive months as of April, according to Florida Realtors. At the same time, new listings and inventory are on the rise. "We continue to see the development of a sustainable market here in Florida," said John Tuccillo, chief economist for Florida Realtors, adding, "The numbers all suggest a balanced market."

The mortgage meltdown and its somewhat predictable fallout—tighter regulations that ensure such a crisis cannot recur but choke lending and borrowing at the source—have led to an equally inevitable outcome: a glut in cash sales for homes. A recent report by Redfin shows that in 17 metro markets in the United States, a full third of sales this year have been all-cash deals. And that figure has been essentially flat since 2011.

According to estimates released Friday by the Commerce Department, sales of new single-family homes last month were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, a 6.4 percent improvement over March’s upwardly revised rate of 407,000. March sales were originally reported at 384,000.