Real Estate Insights

Each month the Obama Administration, under HUD and the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, releases their “Housing Scorecard” report to provide a summary of the Nation’s housing market trends. This month’s housing figures, in the September edition, show continued signs of stabilization in home prices, although existing- and new-home sales declined in July.

Highlights of the September Housing Scorecard include:

• As expected with the expiration of the Homebuyer Tax Credit, new and existing home sales showed a dip in July. At the same time, home prices have leveled off in the past year after 30 straight months of decline and homeowners added $95 billion in home equity in the second quarter.

• More than 3.35 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and the end of July 2010, including more than 1.3 million trial Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) modification starts, more than 510,000 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions, and nearly 1.6 million proprietary modifications under HOPE Now. The number of agreements offered continued to more than double foreclosure completions for the same period (1.24 million).

• More than 468,000 permanent modifications granted to homeowners; more than 33,000 homeowners received a HAMP permanent modification in August

Existing home sales nationwide rose in August

Existing-home sales nationwide rose 7.6 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.13 million units compared with 3.84 million units in July, according to NAR’s latest housing report. Home sales remain 19 percent below the 5.10 million-unit pace recorded in August 2009.

“The housing market is trying to recover on its own power without the home buyer tax credit,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Despite very attractive affordability conditions, a housing market recovery will likely be slow and gradual because of lingering economic uncertainty.”

Yun added, “Home values have shown stabilizing trends over the past year, even as the economy shed millions of jobs, because of the home buyer tax credit stimulus. Now that the economy is adding some jobs, the housing market needs to steadily improve and eventually stand on its own.”

The national median price for existing homes was $178,600 in August, an increase of 0.8 percent from a year ago. Distressed homes rose to 34 percent of sales in August from 32 percent in July and 31 percent in August 2009.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the West increased 13.8 percent to an annual pace of 990,000 units in August but were 16.1 percent lower than August 2009. The median price in the West was $214,700, a 2.5 percent decline from a year ago.

New home sales unchanged in August

Sales of new homes remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 288,000 units in August compared with July, the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced this week. On a year-over-year basis, new home sales declined 28.9 percent.

The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2010 was $204,700; the average sales price was $248,000. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 206,000 units, representing a supply of 8.6 months at the current sales rate.

CA Fast Facts

Calif. median home price: August 2010: $318,660 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region August 2010: Santa Barbara So. Coast $777,000 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region August 2010: High Desert $127,860 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Second quarter 2010: 64 percent (Source: C.A.R.)
Mortgage rates: Week ending 9/23/2010 30-yr. fixed: 4.37 Fees/points: 0.7% 15-yr. fixed: 3.82% Fees/points: 0.7% 1-yr. adjustable: 3.46% Fees/points: 0.7% (Source: Freddie Mac)

Information sourced from “CAR Newline: Leading the way…® in real estate news” (September 29, 2010). Copyright © 2010 CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.)