RIS Media
1 July 2013
In the latest round of positive housing news this week, Homes.com is reporting gains for single-family properties in all top 100 markets for the first time, improving from 96 and 91 markets in the two previous reporting periods. This, according to its latest Local Market Index, a price performance summary on repeat sales of properties in the U.S. based on home pricing data for the period ending April 2013.
As a complement to the Local Market Index, Homes.com released an exclusive Rebound Report, highlighting how the housing recovery process is unfolding across the country. Rebound data for April 2013 revealed that 14 markets across the U.S. are fully recovered – up from the previous month’s nine markets.
Additionally, 35 U.S. markets now show a rebound of 50 percent or more.
“The latest round of report findings supports a growing confidence in the housing market,” says Brock MacLean, executive vice president of Homes.com. “With home prices posting the strongest gains in seven years, the Rebound Report is another indicator of a positive turn. In one month alone, we have seen five new markets reach recovery. Adding to that momentum, all top 100 markets recorded gains for the first time, indicating the recovery continues to build across the country.”
This news comes following a wave of positive housing recovery news we reported last week including a significant jump in April home prices – posting record monthly growth and the fastest year-over-year growth in seven years; and both new-home sales and consumer confidence each reaching five-year highs.
A CoreLogic report from earlier in June heralded the return of positive equity for 850,000 more residential properties in the first quarter of 2013, another sign that the market is recovering. According to CoreLogic, the national aggregate value of negative equity decreased more than $50 billion to $580 billion at the end of the first quarter from 631 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.
“It is hard to know market by market exactly how extensive the return to positive equity is, but from published data it looks like the movement is spread across the country,” says RE/MAX, LLC Chairman of the Board and Co-founder Dave Liniger. “In 2012, 1.7 million homeowners who were previously underwater achieved positive equity and about half that number achieved positive equity in the first quarter of 2013. For every home price increase of 5 percent another 1.2 million will reach positive equity. It appears to be a widespread phenomenon and one that will benefit this inventory-starved market.”
According to the newest Homes.com Local Market Index:
– Monthly increases in all of the top 100 markets, a sizable improvement from the 75 out of 100 that gained in February.
– Honolulu, Hawaii Hawaii remains the top gaining market on a year-over-year basis.
– California markets [Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.; and San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.] increased 18.85, 18.47, and 15.46 index points respectively.
– Six of the top 10 monthly gaining markets are in the West, two are from the South, and the Northeast and Midwest each had one.
Highlights from the Homes.com Rebound Report for the top 100 markets show:
– 14 have made more than a 100 percent rebound, indicating a complete recovery in these markets. This is up from 9 markets posting a full recovery in last month’s report.
– 35 show more than a 50 percent rebound, up from 28 markets in the previous report.
– Six of the top 10 markets are from Texas, with four exceeding a 200 percent rebound.
– Tulsa, Okla. comes in at a 179.03 percent recovery, with a modest increase of a 0.33 index point in the Homes.com Local Market Index for month over month, indicating healthy gains are occurring in this market.