RealEstateEconomyWatch.com

In the several California markets that have seen soaring prices and historically low inventory levels during this spring buying season, a flood of new listings drove inventories up. The increasing inventories are helping to moderate price increases in the hot markets. In Sacramento, for example, list prices actually declined on a monthly basis.

In Sacramento, inventories increased 81.17 percent and in Stockton-Lodi, 74.80 percent in April. San Francisco, Oakland, San Francisco also registered monthly inventory increases exceeding 10 percent according to realtor.com’s April trend report.

Nationally, inventories increased by 4.12 percent over the month, while list prices rose by 2.63 percent, as home owners sought to take advantage of what is now widely seen as a sellers’ market. At the same time, the average age of the inventory fell to 81 days in April, 10.99 percent lower than one year ago. All of these positive signs point to a housing market that is well on its way to a broad-based recovery.

The recovery continues to reach more and more of realtor.com’s 246 markets. Year-over-year median list prices increased in 96 markets, held steady in 20 markets and declined in only 30 markets, a pattern that has been steadily improving since the beginning of the year. These patterns suggest that the housing recovery is likely to be broad, particularly if the overall economy continues to improve.

On a year-over-year basis, the for-sale inventory declined in all but 11 of the 146 markets tracked by realtor.com, with 36 markets registering declines of 20% or more. At the same time, year-over-year median list prices increased in 96 markets, held steady in 20 markets and declined in 30 markets, a pattern that has been steadily improving since the beginning of the year. These patterns suggest that the housing recovery is likely to be broad, particularly if the overall economy continues to improve. While there continue to be pockets of weaknesses, 2013 promises to be a very good year for the housing market.

On a year-over-year basis, April median list prices were up by 1 p or more in 96 of 146 MSAs, and up by 5% or more in 59 MSAs. Median list prices were down by 1% or more in 30 markets, while 6 experienced a decline of more than 5%. The remaining 20 markets have not experienced significant changes in their median list price compared to a year ago. These results represent a significant improvement over March’s results, when only 82 markets were up by 1% or more on an annual basis and 36 markets were down by 1% or more.

Detroit joined California markets and Phoenix in the list of “top 10″ areas experiencing the largest year-over-year increases in their median list prices. Median list prices in these markets rose by an average of 5.66% over the month, while listings were down by an average of 34.94% compared to one year ago. In addition to the areas shown on the list, 6 other market had annual list price increases of 20% or more, including: Riverside-San Bernardino, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Reno NV; San Francisco, CA; Stockton-Lodi CA; and Jacksonville FL. All of these areas were among the hardest hit by the housing crisis.