from the New York Times...
Even some of the cities that suffered the most in the housing bust are showing signs of improvement, with prices beginning to recover in places like Miami, Atlanta and Detroit, according to the latest housing data. Several factors have helped: investors have bought cheap properties, reduced inventory has led to competitive bids, and lower interest rates have buoyed buyers — at least those who can qualify for a mortgage.
from S&P Dow Jones...
Data through June 2012, released today by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed that all three headline composites ended the second quarter of 2012 with positive annual growth rates for the first time since the summer of 2010.
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a 1.2% gain in the second quarter of 2012 over the second quarter of 2011.
from the National Association of Realtors...
"While the month-to-month movement has been uneven, more importantly we now have 15 consecutive months of year-over-year gains in contract activity," Yun said.
Limited inventory is constraining market activity. "All regions saw monthly increases in home-buying activity except for the West, which is now experiencing an acute inventory shortage," Yun added.
from the Federal Housing Finance Agency...
U.S. house prices rose 1.8 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2012 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index (HPI).Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division experienced the strongest prices in the latest quarter, posting a 4.2 percent price increase. Prices were weakest in the New England division, where prices were flat over the quarter.
from CoreLogic...
Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 3.8 percent in July 2012 compared to July 2011. This was the biggest year-over-year increase since August 2006. The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicates that August home prices, including distressed sales, will rise by 4.6 percent on a year-over-year basis from August 2011 and at least 0.6 percent on a month-over-month basis from July 2012.
Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest appreciation were: Arizona (+16.6 percent), Idaho (10.0 percent), Utah (+9.3 percent), South Dakota (+8.3 percent) and Colorado (+7.3 percent). Including distressed sales, the five states with the greatest depreciation were: Delaware (-4.8 percent), Alabama (-4.6 percent), Rhode Island (-2.2 percent), Connecticut (-1.7 percent) and Illinois (-1.7 percent).
from The Wall Street Journal...
Prices have risen this summer for a simple reason: more buyers have chased fewer properties. But the drop in supply and the boost in demand isn’t the only reason that Case-Shiller is now turning positive. Another related factor is that the share of non-distressed home sales is rising and the share of distressed sales—foreclosures and short sales, mostly—is falling.
from the The Atlantic...
Millennials have turned against both cars and houses in dramatic and historic fashion. Just as car sales have plummeted among their age cohort, the share of young people getting their first mortgage between 2009 and 2011 is half what it was just 10 years ago, according to a Federal Reserve study.
According to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, between 2006 and 2011, the homeownership rate among adults younger than 35 fell by 12 percent. Nine out of 10 Millennials say they eventually want a place they own, according to a recent Fannie Mae survey. But this generation’s path to homeownership is fraught with obstacles: low pay, low savings, tighter lending standards from banks. Student debt—some $1 trillion in total—stalks many potential buyers as they seek a mortgage (or a car loan). At a minimum, homeownership rates are highly unlikely to soon return to the peaks they hit during the housing bubble.
from Zillow...
In conjunction with rising home values, rents continued to rise in July, appreciating by 0.2 percent from June to July. On an annual basis, rents across the nation are up by 5.4 percent. The rental market remains strong, especially in markets that continue to experience consistent home value declines. Metropolitan areas that saw extremely strong year-over-year rent appreciation include Philadelphia (11.7 percent), Chicago (12.6 percent), and Baltimore (11.9 percent).
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/business/economy/home-prices-rise-survey-shows.html
http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/articles/en/us/?articleType=PDF&assetID=1245339137837
http://www.realtor.org/news-releases/2012/08/july-pending-home-sales-rebound
http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/24216/2q2012hpi.pdf
http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-july-home-price-index-rises-3.8-percent-year-over-yearbiggest-increase-since-2006.aspx#
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2012/08/27/why-home-prices-are-rising-the-distressed-share/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/the-cheapest-generation/309060/1/
http://www.zillow.com/blog/research/2012/08/20/u-s-home-values-climb-for-eighth-consecutive-month-over-60-of-metros-show-increasing-values/