Tag Archives: housing market

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March 2016 RE/MAX National Housing Report

March 2016 National Housing Report

As the popular home buying season approaches, February sales saw a jump from both January and last February. The year-over-year change was 4.8% and the increase over January was 5.8%, which is in line with the 5.2% average seen in each month of February since 2009.  Over the last 12 months, the average year-over-year increase in home sales has been 5.8%, and only two months, November and October, experienced sales that were not above year-ago sales. The Median Sales Price of all homes sold in February was $198,000 or 5.9% higher than the price in February 2015. Price increases have moderated over several months, with month-over-month declines seen in 6 of the last 12 months. The inventory of homes for sale remains very tight in many markets across the country, with February seeing a level that is 13.3% lower than a year ago. At the rate of home sales in February, the national Months Supply of inventory was 4.0, down from 4.7 in February 2015.

Read the full article in RE/MAX’s Newsroom…

Watch the short video on YouTube…

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The 25 strongest and weakest housing markets for 2016

United States

With the new year, it’s still not too late to identify where the strongest and weakest U.S. housing markets will be in 2016.

A new report from Veros Real Estate Solutions, a provider of enterprise risk management, collateral valuation services and predictive analytics, shows the vitality and expected market changes of the U.S. residential market for 2016.

The recently released VeroFORECAST quarterly national real estate market forecast for the 12-month period ending Dec. 1, 2016 shows where housing will be hot in 2016 and where it will be not so hot.

In all the top forecast markets, Veros’ report shows an appreciation in the 10% range, especially in the Pacific Northwest, such as California, Washington and Oregon. Popular housing markets in Texas like Dallas and Austin also made the list.

Read the full story…

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4 Must-Know Tips for Buying & Selling in 2016

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What do buyers and sellers need to know to be smart about the housing market in 2016?

“The 2016 housing market is forecasted to be mainly a seller’s market, filled with increasing home prices, relatively low inventory and fierce competition between buyers,” says Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com®. “Buyers looking to close this year need to keep an open mind and be prepared to move quickly when they find a home that meets their needs. For sellers, it’s about understanding the ins and outs of their local market so they can optimize the price of their home and close quickly.”

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3 Trends Sellers Should Know in 2016

House with BHHS Sign

There are three dominant trends in real estate that sellers should be aware of going into the new year. CNNMoney recently asked industry insiders to share what will be important when it comes to selling a home in 2016. Read the 3 trends…

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This Isn’t a Housing Bubble: Here’s Why

Important

Home prices are rising rapidly, but economists are deflating concerns that another “housing bubble” is brewing.

A recent report from CoreLogic shows that twice as many metro markets are considered “overvalued” – prices are inflated relative to incomes — in the second quarter of this year compared to the first three months of the year. But economists say it’s not a housing bubble because bubbles eventually burst and home prices this time around aren’t likely to fall.

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Foreclosures Down 68% From Peak

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Foreclosures are falling fast. Since reaching a peak in September 2010, the number of foreclosures has plunged 68 percent – from 117,225 nationwide to 38,000 as of July, according to CoreLogic’s July 2015 National Foreclosure Report, released recently.

In the past year alone, foreclosure inventory has fallen by nearly 28 percent and completed foreclosures have dropped about 24 percent. Completed foreclosures are the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.

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International Buyers Flow Into U.S. Housing Market, China Tops List

United States

This year, for the first time since the National Association of Realtors has tracked foreign buyers of U.S. real estate, buyers from China have surpassed for the first time Canadians, Europeans, Mexicans and Middle Eastern home buyers as the top overseas purchasers of homes in the United States. Chinese investment in U.S. residential real estate has grown from a measly $50 million in 2000 to an eye-popping $28.6 billion in the year ending in March 2015, up 72 percent from a year earlier, double the amount spent a year earlier, surpassing all other foreign buyers. All told, overseas home buyers spent a record $104 billion buying U.S. homes in the 12 months ending in March 2015, with Chinese buyers leading the pack. In the 2014 survey, foreigners spent $92 billion on U.S. homes over a 12-month period, up 35 percent from a year earlier. Chinese buyers are now the biggest international buyers of U.S. real estate in terms of dollar volume, total units, and average price paid. Moreover, 76 percent of Chinese buyers pay cash.

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MBA Forecasts Housing Demand Over Next 10 Years

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has just released a paper, Demographics and the Numbers Behind the Coming Multi-Million increase in Households, forecasting housing demand over the next ten years. Their study used date from 1975 – 2014 a period encompassing several market and housing cycles and the short version of its conclusion was the “By 2024, demographic and economic changes will bring what could be one of the largest expansions in the history of the U.S. housing market – 15.9 million additional households.” Even if household formation remains at 2014 low rates, demographic changes alone should account for 13.9 million new households by 2024.

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Home Prices Rise in Nearly All Metro Areas in Second Quarter

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The National Association of Realtors recently announced that home prices in the second quarter rose in 163 or 176 metro areas. The median existing single-family home price rose $229,400 in the second quarter, up 8.2% from a year earlier. That was a slightly faster rate of increase than the 7.1% price rise seen in the first quarter. In the second quarter, 34 metro areas reported double-digit annual price gains, compared with 51 that reported such gains in the first quarter. The average supply of homes in the second quarter was 5.1 months, down from 5.5 months a year ago. Total existing-home sales, including single family and condo, increased 6.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.30 million in the second quarter from 4.97 million in the first quarter, and are 8.5 percent higher than the 4.89 million pace during the second quarter of 2014. In the West, existing-home sales climbed 8.1 percent in the second quarter and are 8.1 percent above a year ago. The median existing single-family home price in the West increased 9.6 percent to $325,200 in the second quarter from the second quarter of 2014.

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April Distressed Sales Drop to Lowest Level Since 2007

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Distressed sales – real estate-owned (REO) and short sales – made up 11.1% of total home sales in April, down 3 percentage points from April 2014 and down 1.5 percentage points from March. While distressed sales typically decrease month over month in April due to seasonal factors, this distressed sales share was the lowest from the month of April since 2007. Broken up, REO sales accounted for 7.4% and short sales made up 3.7% of total home sales in April. Additionally, the short sales percentage fell below 4% in mid-2014 and has remained stable since then. At its peak in January 2009, distressed sales totaled 32.4% of all sales, with REO sales representing 27.9% of that share. There will always be some level of distress in the housing market, and by comparison, the pre-crisis share of distressed sales was traditionally about 2%. If the current year-over-year decrease in distressed sales share continues, the distressed sales share would reach that ‘normal’ 2-percent mark in mid-2017.

Read the full story at CoreLogic…