March buyers blew the roof off housing markets as they heeded warnings about the limited supplies of home for sale and found houses in record time.  National monthly market reports on March transactions chronicled surge of sales as the spring season kicked off and tens of thousands of new listings turned over in a matter of days. “We expected a … Read More »

January is the month when real estate markets traditionally take a breather to restock their shelves for the spring season. In the final quarter of 2016 record demand powered by concern over interest rates and rising prices encouraged buyers to clear the shelves of depleted supplies and strong sales continued into the new year. An analysis of the January market … Read More »

  The good news about January home sales is that the year over year rate reached the highest they reached an all-time high, an annualized total that was a little bit higher than it was last November. The bad news is that the serious problems facing the residential real estate economy grew even more serious during the slowest month of … Read More »

The National Association of Realtors has reduced its outlook for existing sales in 2016 from a 3 percent increase over 2015 (5.45 million sales) to an increase of only 1 to 2 percent (5.30 to 5.40 million sales). The new forecast, three months before the opening of the home sales season, amends an early one made at NAR’s annual meeting … Read More »

Existing-home sales dropped off considerably in November to the slowest pace in 19 months, but the National Association of Realtors said some of the decrease was likely due to the “Know before you owe” or the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures rule (TRID), which took effect October 3. The rule requires lenders and service providers to provide binding estimates and final accounting … Read More »

  The number of homes nationwide losing value on a monthly basis has more than tripled over the past year while the number of appreciating homes has fallen more than 12 percent, Allan Weiss, CEO of Weiss Residential Research reported today. Depreciating homes increased from 7.60 percent to 23.40 percent while the number of appreciating homes has fallen from 65.20 … Read More »

  With annualized sales and price appreciation reports blowing away the early forecasts for 2015 and putting smiles on the faces of professionals and real estate consumers alike, is there reason to worry that there’s a major downturn lurking around the corner? Clear Capital’s vice president of research and analytics Alex Villacorta, a fearless contrarian who called Florida’s investor-driven recovery … Read More »

By combining industry data, proprietary company transactional data and publicly available Google Trends data, Auction.com has launched a new report called “Nowcast” to predict home sales as they are occurring. Findings from the first Auction.com Nowcast predict that existing home sales in October will fall between seasonally adjusted averages of 4.967 and 5.380 million annual sales, with a targeted prediction … Read More »

Prompted by two years of steadily rising prices, inventories are reaching levels higher than they have been in two and a half years according Zillow. Inventory shortages have plagued real estate markets for much of that time, but the latest data suggests that the pendulum may have swung too far in the other direction.  Zillow reported that national for-sale inventory … Read More »

  Two major market reports left real estate professionals shaking their heads this week over the latest sales data.  RealtyTrac and NAR reported July sales headed in opposite directions as the buying season closed up shop for the duration. Sales of residential properties were down 3 percent from June and down 12 percent from a year ago — the third … Read More »