All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™

Welcome to our weekly edition of Real Estate Investing News This Week. Here’s the best of this week’s real estate news:

• S&P/Case-Shiller: Home prices up 13.7%

• Home prices are showing signs of topping out

• Home flipping increased 16% in 2013

• Foreclosure inventory down 31%

We hope these real estate news items help you stay up-to-date with your real estate investing strategies and inspire some profitable real estate deals for you.

S&P/Case-Shiller Indices: Home Prices Up 13.7 Percent

Data through November 2013, released Thursday by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed that the 10-City and 20-City Composites increased 13.8% and 13.7% year-over-year.
For the month of November, the two Composites declined 0.1%. After nine consecutive months of gains, this marks the first decrease since November 2012.

The chart above shows the index levels for the 10-City and 20-City Composite Indices. As of November 2013, average home prices across the United States are back to their mid-2004 levels.

Home Prices Are Showing Signs of Topping Out
S&P/Case-Shiller index posted first decline in 10 months
From CNNMoney:
“The annual measure of home prices still increased 13.7% in November, but that was only narrowly better than the rise posted in October.
The housing recovery was one of the stronger aspects of the economy last year, boosting household wealth and home construction.
But with mortgage rates climbing steadily since hitting record lows in May, it’s clear the housing recovery is starting to lose some steam.
‘While housing will make further contributions to the economy in 2014, the pace of price gains is likely to slow during the year,’ said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.”

CoreLogic: Most Rapid Rate of Housing Appreciation Since 2006

On Thursday, CoreLogic^® released an analysis of home price trends during the third quarter of 2013 in more than 380 U.S. markets.
Highlights include:

• Home prices increased by 11.2 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2013.

• Nationally, prices still 23 percent below the first-quarter peak of 2006.

• Price appreciation is projected to slow to 4.2 percent across all markets by the fall of 2014.

“Investor demand and sales of foreclosed properties are dropping quickly,” said Dr. David Stiff, principal economist for CoreLogic Case-Shiller. “This is especially true in states that were caught up early in the bubble and have non-judicial foreclosure proceedings…. In these states, inventories of bank-owned properties are close to being cleared.   Non-investor demand, although increasing, will not replace demand from investors.”

Price Gains to Diminish as REO Inventories Dissipate
By Krista Franks Brock
“CoreLogic anticipates a substantial deceleration in home price gains this year. In fact, the firm predicts home price gains will fall just below the long-term historical norm of 4.5 percent appreciation annually, which has been maintained since 1975.
Home prices are expected to rise 4.2 percent from the third quarter of 2013 through the third quarter of 2014, according to CoreLogic.”

Home Flipping Increases 16% in 2013

—Average Profit On Flips Rises to $62,000+—

RealtyTrac’s Q4 2013 Home Flipping Report, shows 156,862 single family home flips — where a home is purchased and subsequently sold again within six months — in 2013, up 16 percent from 2012 and up 114 percent from 2011.
The average gross profit for a home flip — the difference between the flipped price and the price the flipper purchased the property for — was $58,081 for all U.S. homes flipped in 2013, up from an average gross profit of $45,759 in 2012. The average gross profit for homes flipped in the fourth quarter was $62,761, up from $52,746 in the fourth quarter of 2012.

December Pending Home Sales Fall

Pending home sales measurably dropped in December, with abnormal weather partly inhibiting home shopping in much of the U.S., according to the National Association of Realtors®. Declines were experienced in all four major regions.
The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, fell 8.7 percent to 92.4 in December from 101.2 in November, and is 8.8 percent below December 2012 when it was 101.3. The data reflect contracts but not closings, and are at the lowest level since October 2011, when the index was 92.2.
 

CoreLogic Reports 45,000 Completed Foreclosures in December

—The foreclosure inventory fell 31 percent nationally in 2013—

According to CoreLogic, there were 620,111 completed foreclosures across the country in 2013 compared to 820,498 in 2012, a decrease of 24 percent.
For the month of December, there were 45,000 completed foreclosures, down from 52,000 in December 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 14 percent.
As of December 2013, approximately 837,000 homes in the United States were in some stage of foreclosure, known as the foreclosure inventory, compared to 1.2 million in December 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 31 percent.

Download a copy of the National Foreclosure Report Here>>>