Prices for
single-family houses climbed in almost 88%of U.S. cities in the 4th quarter as
the housing recovery broadened.
The median sales
price rose from a year earlier in 133 of 152 metropolitan areas measured, the
National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a report today. In the 3rd
quarter, 120 areas had gains.
An improving job
market & low interest rates are driving up prices by fueling demand for a
tightening supply of listings.
Single-family
home..!
The national median
price for an existing single-family house was $ 178,900 in the 4th quarter, up
10% from the same period last year. That was the biggest gain since 2005,
according to the Realtors group.
Mr. Lawrence Yun,
Chief economist,National Association of Realtors, said “House sales are on a
sustained uptrend. Home sales are being
fueled by a pent-up demand & job creation, along with still-favorable
affordability conditions & rents rising at faster rates”
At the end of the 4th
quarter, 18.2 lakh previously owned houses were available for sale, 22%fewer
than a year earlier, according to the Chicago-based Realtors group.
The best-performing
metro area was Phoenix, where prices jumped 34% from a year earlier. Prices
rose 31% in Detroit and 28% in San Francisco.
In Phoenix, the
inventory of foreclosed houses & short sales, when lenders agree to sell
for less than the mortgage balance, plunged 42% in December from a year
earlier, said Michael Orr, director of the Center for Real Estate Theory and
Practice at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.
“Foreclosures &
short sales have gone down, eliminating the sources of many cheap homes,” Orr
said in a Feb. 7, 2013 report.
“So the more
expensive types of transactions, such as normal re- sales & new - home
sales, went up. As a result, new-home construction, which was at rock bottom in
2011, also really came roaring back in 2012.”
Private-equity
investors including Blackstone Group LP & Colony Capital LLC are helping to
reduce inventory in Phoenix as they compete to buy low - cost foreclosures they
plan to operate as rental properties.
Other areas hard-hit
by the foreclosure crisis showed large price increases. Prices climbed 26% in
Cape Coral, Florida; 22% in California’s Riverside and San Bernardino counties;
and 20% in Las Vegas.
In the New York,
Northern New Jersey & Long Island metropolitan area, prices increased 3.6%.
The Kingston, New
York, area had the biggest decline in the Realtors group’s report, with the
median selling price falling about 8%
the quarter. It was followed by Kankakee, Illinois, with an 7% decrease, and
Erie, Pennsylvania, with a 6% drop.
Prices in western
states climbed 20% to a median $ 2.45,200, the biggest gain of any area,
according to the Realtors group. Prices in northeastern states rose the least,
up 0.7% to a median $ 2,28,400.
National Association of Realtors
Headquarters: 430 N. Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60611-4087DC
office: 500 New Jersey Avenue, NW Washington DC 20001-2020
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