Tag Archives: prices

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Home Prices Are Climbing Faster and Faster, but This Is Not a Bubble

Prices Rising

This spring buying season is off to a strong start—in fact, prices are going up faster than they were just a few months ago, according to nearly every recent metric. So does that mean we’re in a bubble?

Nope, that’s just what happens when demand increases faster than supply. After all, existing-home sales were up 9% year over year in March, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Inventory is also increasing, but not as fast as sales, resulting in a tight supply getting even tighter.

Read the article…

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Lower Oil Prices Could Stall Home Appreciation

Oil prices are plummeting, which is great news for drivers at the pump, but could it negatively affect economies and housing markets that have been fueled by the energy boom?

Communities most impacted by the drop in oil prices may start to see a slow in home prices, according to a report by CoreLogic. Dropping energy prices could notably strike states such as Texas and North Dakota.

Read more…

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Median home prices rose in 2014 amid tight supply of listings

Seattle

The gain in single-family home prices varied dramatically by area in the Puget Sound region, ranging from negative 3 percent to 15 percent compared to a year earlier. Read the article and click on an area in the map for details on sales activity by area.

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REALTORS® Expect Modest Price Growth in Next 12 Months

US

With both inventory and demand up, REALTORS® in nearly every state are expecting modest price growth over the next 12 months, according to data gathered in October. But in 14 states, scattered across the country — from California to Massachusetts — REALTORS® are forecasting appreciation of greater than 3-4 percent.

See if your state’s on the list.

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Seattle’s Median Home Price Sets All-Time Record

Prices Rising

The median house price in Seattle just set a record, topping the 2007 peak for the first time since the Great Recession.

The median price of a house that sold in the city last month was $543,500, up 16.9 percent from a year earlier and 8.9 percent from June, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported last Wednesday. The previous peak was $501,000, in August 2007.

Read the details…

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Recovery Broadens as More Markets See Price Increases

Home prices were on the rise again last month, but in a stark contrast to last year, price increases were more generalized and less concentrated to just a few metro pockets, according to realtor.com’s May 2014 National Housing Trend Report.

In May, the median list price of homes was $214,900 nationwide, an 8 percent increase year-over-year. All but eight of the 146 markets that realtor.com tracks reported year-over-year price increases in May. “This broad increase in price suggests a more evenly distributed recovery and a healthier national housing market,” reads a realtor.com statement on the findings.

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King County Home Prices up 6 percent over year

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Summer has eased the drought of available homes for sale in Greater Seattle, and sales are growing at a pace not seen previously this year.

After five months of declining sales activity compared with a year earlier, the number of June sales was up 2 percent annually, and the supply of homes for sale grew by almost 6 percent, according to a report Thursday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The larger inventory hasn’t lessened competition among buyers in the most sought-after areas, said Mike Gain, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate.

“We don’t have enough supply of homes for sale in desirable neighborhoods to satisfy the demand,” he said. “In those areas, it is just like a feeding frenzy when a house goes on the market,” he said.

The median price of homes sold in King County has been steadily increasing since February, last month reaching $453,500, a 6 percent increase from a year ago.

Read the article in The Seattle Times…

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As Home Prices Rebound, Lenders Rush to Unload REOs

The recovery in home prices this year is prompting banks to sell off their REO inventory at a brisker pace. Sales of bank-owned homes made up 10 percent of residential sales in November, the third consecutive month for increases in REO sales, RealtyTrac reports.

“Lenders are taking advantage of this environment to unload more of their bank-owned inventory and in-foreclosure inventory at the foreclosure auction,” says RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist. “But as the backlog of distressed inventory available dries up in many of the markets with the most efficient foreclosure processes — namely California, Arizona, and Nevada, with Georgia not far behind — overall sales volume is declining and will continue to do so until more nondistressed sellers enter the market.”

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Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Climb by Most in Seven Years

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Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose in October from a year ago by the most in more than seven years, signaling the real-estate rebound will keep bolstering household wealth in 2014.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property prices in 20 cities climbed 13.6 percent from October 2012, the biggest 12-month gain since February 2006, after a 13.3 percent increase in the year ended in September, a report from the group showed today in New York. The median projection of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 13.5 percent advance.

A dwindling inventory of foreclosed properties has helped restrict the supply of homes for sale, pushing up prices even as higher mortgage rates cool demand. The real-estate market will probably get its next boost from gains in employment that are lifting consumer confidence in the economic expansion.

Read the article…

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Housing Predictions: How 2014 Will Be Different

Neighborhood

What should you expect for next year’s housing market? Trulia’s Chief Economist, Jed Kolko, dipped into the data to find out. Check out his predictions for the 5 ways that the 2014 housing market will be different from 2013, as well as the top 10 cities to watch as we enter the new year.