The housing market is continuing to improve according to Trulia, an online residential real estate site. The housing market in October was suggested to be 47% back to normal. Last month the U.S stepped over the halfway mark making the housing market recovery adjust to 51%. Trulia’s barometer showed housing starts 37% recovered, existing home sales 73% recovered and the combined delinquency and foreclosure rates dropping to the lowest level in four years, decreasing to 10.63%. More here
According to the National Association of Realtors, U.S. sales of previously occupied homes increased 5.9% last month, jumping 4.76 million from October. November now holds the highest level of previously occupied home sales in three years. Sales have grown considerably in the past year, increasing 14.5%. The National Association of Realtors suggested that with home prices on the rise, low home-loan rates and new job growth, previously occupied home sales are on track for their most successful year in nearly five years. More here
Repossessions in the United States jumped to a nine-month high last month, even with foreclosures at their lowest in six years. Foreclosure starts dropped to 77,494 in November, a 13% fall from October’s foreclosure starts and a 28% decrease from November 2011. This is the smallest number of foreclosure starts since December 2006, according to RealtyTrac Inc, a foreclosing listing firm. With the housing market improving and the recent increase in home prices, more homeowners are projected to avoid foreclosure in the future. More here
The Fannie Mae National Housing Survey, conducted in November, showed that many of American attitudes are turning around. Surveys found that people are now expressing more confidence toward the housing market. 51% of survey participants said that it would now be easier to comfortably obtain a mortgage. In October, 10% of survey respondents thought home prices would begin to grow over the next year compared to the latest survey in November showing 14% of surveyors believing home prices would grow over the next year. More here
According to Lender Processing Services, foreclosure starts in October dropped to 21.9%. In 2011, October starts dropped even lower to 47.8%. The Lender Processing Services gives warning not to assume the drop in foreclosure starts will result in an improving housing market. LPS also implies the recent foreclosure drop could be temporary, although prices have jumped 3.6% in September and are expected to continue to increase throughout the year. more here.
The sales pace of new homes sold in October was virtually unchanged from the month before, according to estimates jointly released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sales were down 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 368,000, but remain 17.2 percent above last year’s estimate of 314,000. The month’s totals were affected by a significant drop in activity in the Northeast, which was hit by Hurricane Sandy. The median sales price of new houses sold in October was $237,700; the average sales price was $278,900. Also, there was a 4.8 month supply of new homes available for sale at the end of the month. More here and here.
Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development show privately owned housing starts up 3.6 percent in October, which puts them 41.9 percent above last year’s rate. The improvement beat economists’ expectations and helped new residential construction hit its highest rate in more than four years. Building permits, on the other hand, slipped from September, falling 2.7 percent. Despite the dip, they are still up nearly 30 percent above last year’s rate. Also, single-family authorizations posted a 2.2 percent improvement in October. More here and here.
According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of existing homes increased 2.1 percent in October. The improvement put sales 10.9 percent above where they were a year ago. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said home sales continue to trend upward and, due to limited inventory and increasing demand, prices are also on the rise. The national median existing-home price was $178,000 in October, which is 11.1 percent above last year’s level. The price improvement marks eight straight months of year-over-year increases. Also, total housing inventory at the end of the month was down 1.4 percent. At the current sales pace, there is only a 5.4-month supply of available homes for sale, that is the lowest level since February 2006. More here and here.
RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for October 2012 shows foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, are down 19 percent from October 2011, though they rose 3.0 percent from the month before. Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, said foreclosure trends vary widely across the country primarily depending on how well each state was able to handle the high volume of delinquent loans during the worst of the foreclosure crisis. According to the report, foreclosure starts were filed on 89,209 properties in October, which represents a 19 percent drop from last year and the third consecutive month with an annual decrease. Also, the report shows one in every 706 housing units with a foreclosure filing during the month. More here.
Gallup’s Job Creation Index gauges whether American workplaces are adding or shedding employees by asking nearly 17,000 adults via telephone survey whether their employer is hiring or not. In October, the index moved up a point from September, remaining near the highest levels recorded since mid-2008. The index has now been hovering near those highs since March of this year. October’s results found 35 percent of American workers saying their employers are expanding the size of their workforce, while 16 percent reported their employer was letting workers go. Regionally, the Midwest and South continued to outpace the East and West, which has been a consistent trend since late 2010. More here.
