Headlines – Week of May 29, 2011
June 6, 2011
Affordability Reaches Highest Level in 20 Years
The NAHB/Wells Fargo HOI is a measure of the percentage of homes sold in a given area that are affordable to families earning that area’s median income during a specific quarter. Prices of new and existing homes sold are collected from actual court records by First American Real Estate Solutions, a marketing company. Mortgage financing conditions incorporate interest rates on fixed- and adjustable-rate loans reported by the Federal Housing Finance Board.
According to the information published for the first quarter of 2011, the index reached its highest level in the last 20 years. The previous high was set in the fourth quarter of 2010 with 73.9 percent.
According to the Index, nearly 75 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2011 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400.
The most affordable metro housing market in the nation is Syracuse, N.Y., in which 94.5 percent of all homes sold were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $64,300.
Other metro cities ranking high on the affordability index were Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.; Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich.; and Toledo, Ohio.
Meanwhile, the least affordable major housing market for the first quarter of 2011 was New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J.
Seven Cities Where Home Prices Are Rising
According to housing data published by Realtor.com, nationally, median list prices are down 4 percent year-over-year, averaging $191,900. The group looks at data from 146 markets across the U.S.
However, a few cities are bucking that trend and have seen list prices grow higher in the last year.
Here are seven markets that have seen its median list prices grow higher over the past year:
1. Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla.: Up 25.7% year-over-year for median list price
Median list price: $225,000
2. Miami: Up 8.64%
Median list price: $239,000
3. Shreveport-Bossier City, La.: Up 8.13%
Median list price: $173,000
4. Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia: Up 5.99%
Median list price: $369,900
5. Columbia, Mo.: Up 5.07%
Median list price: $168,000
6. Peoria-Pekin, Ill.: Up 3.57%
Median list price: $144,900
7. Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.: Up 3.48%
Median list price: $249,900
CoreLogic Index shows home price increase
CoreLogic recently released its April Home Price Index (HPI), which shows that home prices in the U.S. increased on a month-to-month basis by 0.7 percent between March and April, 2011. This is the first such increase since the homebuyer tax credit expired in mid-2010.
However, national home prices including distressed sales declined by 7.5 percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010 after declining by 6.8 percent in March 2011 compared to March 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.5 percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010 and by 1.6 percent in March 2011 compared to March 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate-owned (REO) transactions.
Highlights of the April 2011 report:
- Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: North Dakota (+4.2 percent), Vermont (+3.4 percent), New York (+3.2 percent), The District of Columbia (+2.2 percent) and Mississippi (+1.4 percent).
- Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Idaho (-15.2 percent), Michigan (-13.2 percent), Arizona (-11.9 percent), Rhode Island (-11.6 percent) and Nevada (-11.4 percent).
- Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: West Virginia (+8.4 percent), South Carolina (+6.1 percent), Hawaii (+5.8 percent), Mississippi (+5.0 percent) and North Dakota (+4.5 percent).
- Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Nevada (-10.3 percent), Idaho (-9.5 percent), Arizona (-6.0 percent), South Dakota (-5.9 percent) and Minnesota (-5.6 percent).
- Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to April 2011) was -33.8 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -21.9 percent.
- Of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population, 92 are showing year-over-year declines in April, an increase over March when 91 of the top CBSAs show year-over-year declines.
Posted by Scott R. Lodde
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