All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™
Welcome to our weekly edition of Real Estate Investing News This Week. Highlights this week include:
- Home Prices Up 5%
- Home Price Gains Continue to Slow
- Housing Starts Reach 6-Year Highs
- New Home Sales Rise 11.6%
- Best Markets for Buying Rental Properties
- And more….
Home Prices Up 5 Percent Year Over Year in December
CoreLogic’s Home Price Index (HPI®) shows that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 5 percent in December 2014 compared to December 2013. This change represents 34 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally.
“Nationally, home price appreciation took a pause in November and December 2014 and we expect a slow start to 2015,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.
Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: Colorado (+8.4 percent), Texas (+7.8 percent), New York (+7.6 percent), Nevada (+7.3 percent) and Michigan (+7.2 percent).
Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: New York (+8.0 percent), Colorado (+7.8 percent), Massachusetts (+7.2 percent), Texas (+7.1 percent) and Nevada (+7.1 percent).
Access the complete Home Price Index Report here >>>
Home Price Gains Continue to Slow According to S&P/Case-Shiller
Both the 10-City and 20-City Composites saw year-over-year growth rates decline in November compared to October.
The 10-City Composite gained 4.2% year-over-year, down from 4.4% in October. The 20-City Composite gained 4.3% year-over-year, compared to 4.5% in October.
Miami and San Francisco continue to lead all cities, posting gains of 8.6% and 8.9% over the last 12 months.
This chart depicts the annual returns of the U.S. National, the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite Home Price Indices.
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a 4.7% annual gain in November 2014. The 10- and 20-City Composites reported year-over-year increases of 4.2% and 4.3%.
Housing Starts Reach Six-Year Highs
From REALTOR® Magazine Online:
Housing starts for single-family homes surged to the highest level in more than six-and-a-half years, a promising sign at the end of 2014, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Homebuilding has been significantly low despite recent economic growth. Household formation has been running at about 500,000 a year – way below the 1-million mark that most economists consider healthy for the sector.
But the Commerce Department’s report on Wednesday hints at a turnaround: Single-family housing starts, the largest portion of the homebuilding market, rose 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 728,000 units in December. It’s the highest level since March 2008.
New Home Sales Rise 11.6 Percent in December
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 11.6 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000 units, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The inventory of new homes for sale rose to 219,000 in December, which is a 5.5-month supply at the current sales pace.
Regionally, new home sales rose 53.6 percent in the Northeast, 17.7 percent in the South and 3.1 percent in the West. Sales dropped 11.5 percent in the Midwest.
One in Four U.S. Foreclosures are “Zombies” Vacated by Homeowner
On Thursday, RealtyTrac released its Q1 2015 Zombie Foreclosure Report.
As of the end of January 2015, 142,462 homes actively in the foreclosure process had been vacated by the homeowners prior to the bank repossessing the property, representing 25 percent of all active foreclosures.
The total number of zombie foreclosures was down 6 percent from a year ago, but the 25 percent share of total foreclosures represented by zombies was up from 21 percent a year ago.
States with the most zombie foreclosures
Metros with most zombie foreclosures
Best Markets for Buying Residential Rental Properties
RealtyTrac’s Q1 2015 Residential Property Rental Report ranks the best markets for buying residential rental properties in the first quarter of 2015.
The report also looks at which markets are seeing the biggest increases in rental rates in 2015 compared to 2014, and provides rankings of the best safe haven residential rental markets, along with the best markets for renting to Millennials, best markets for renting to Generation Xers, and best markets for renting to Baby Boomers.
