Tag Archives: Housing Supply

Home sales and prices both improved year-over-year for the 19th straight month in August, according to multiple listing service (MLS) data from RE/MAX.

Existing-home sales rose an unexpected 6.5 percent to an annual sales rate of 5.48 million, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected existing home sales to drop to 5.255 million from July's originally reported July's 5.39 million sales pace which was unchanged in today's report. The increase in sales came as the median price of an existing single family home in August dipped slightly from July, down $300 to $212,100.

Led by the strongest gain for single-family construction this, year, the pace of housing starts edged up 0.9 percent in August, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Wednesday. Builders broke ground in August on new homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 891,000--up from a revised 883,000 in July--and filed for permits at the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 918,000, down from 954,000 in July. The gain in both single-family permits and starts came amid signs of improving builder confidence.

Redfin reported another slip in homebuyer demand in August, with both home tours and offers declining.

Even as housing inventory starts to recover, the basic fundamentals of supply and demand--as measured by new starts versus job growth across the nation--point to continued price growth, according to one expert at John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Nationally, the employment growth-to-permit (E/P) ratio is 2.5, up from 2.3 last year and well above the "equilibrium level" of 1.2. Eighteen of the top 20 markets have an E/P ratio higher than the equilibrium.

Realtor.com released Thursday its National Housing Trend Report for August, which shows prices leveling out as the inventory recovery becomes more widespread.

Market indicators continue to point to an imminent slowdown in home price gains--further allaying fears of another housing bubble in the making, Capital Economic says.

Trulia's Housing Barometer dialed up to 64 percent "back to normal" in July, the company reported.

Responding to higher mortgage rates and higher prices, the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) slipped 1.3 percent in July--the steepest decline this year--to 109.5, the group reported Wednesday. Economists had expected the index for July would drop to 109.8, which would have been a 1.0 percent decline from June's 110.9. Despite the month-over-month decline, July's PHSI is up 6.7 percent over the same month last year.

After observing a slowdown in sales throughout June--typically the peak selling month for the year--online brokerage Redfin reported a rebound in July, though other market indicators continue to cool. According to Redfin's data, "this July saw a healthy jump in homes sold throughout most of the 19 markets covered in this report," improving 3 percent month-over-month and 17.6 percent year-over-year from a rather disappointing July 2012. At the same time, reports on home price growth and inventory were less positive in July.