All the Real Estate News That’s Fit to RE-Print™

Welcome to our weekly edition of Real Estate Investing News This Week. Highlights this week include:

• Homes Prices Up 6.8%

• Builder Confidence Up 5 Points

• 254,000 Properties Regain Equity

• And more…

Homes Prices Rose by 6.8 Percent

According to CoreLogic^® home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 6.8 percent in April 2015 compared with April 2014.
This change represents 38 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally.

Highlights as of April 2015:

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: South Carolina (+11.4 percent), Colorado (+9.7 percent), Washington (+9.1 percent), Florida (+9 percent) and Texas (+8.3 percent).

• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: South Carolina (+10 percent), Florida (+9.5 percent), Colorado (+9.3 percent), Washington (+8.7 percent) and Texas (+8.2 percent).

• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to April 2015) was -9 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change for the same period was -5.1 percent.

• Including distressed sales, four states experienced year-over-year home price depreciation: Massachusetts (-1.7 percent), Louisiana (-1.5 percent), Connecticut (-1.1 percent) and Maryland (-0.7 percent).

• The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were: Nevada (-33.9 percent), Florida (-29.3 percent), Rhode Island (-28.2 percent), Arizona (-26.2 percent) and Connecticut (-24.8 percent).

Home Price Gains Ease in April

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices data released onn June 30 for April 2015 show that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months.
“Home prices continue to rise across the country, but the pace is not accelerating,” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
“Moreover, consumer expectations are consistent with the current pace of price increases. A recent national survey published by the New York Fed showed the average expected price increase among both owners and renters is 4.1%.”

 

Home Builder Confidence Up 5 Points

Builder confidence rose five points to 59 from May’s reading on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
From Diana Olick:
“Sales of newly built homes in April (the latest reading available) were 26 percent higher than a year ago, according to the U.S. Census, and housing starts were 9 percent higher….
The median sale price of a newly built home in April was $297,300, an increase of 8.3 percent from April of 2014.”
 

254,000 Properties Regained Equity in Q1 2015

According to CoreLogic^® 254,000 properties regained equity in the first quarter of 2015, bringing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity at the end of Q1 2015 to approximately 90 percent of all mortgaged properties.
The total number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity is now at 5.1 million, or 10.2 percent of all mortgaged properties.
Highlights as of Q1 2015:

• Nevada had the highest percentage of mortgaged residential properties in negative equity at 23.1 percent, followed by Florida (21.2 percent), Illinois (16.8 percent), Arizona (16.8 percent) and Rhode Island (15.7 percent). Combined, these five states accounted for 31.4 percent of negative equity in the U.S.

• Texas had the highest percentage of mortgaged residential properties in positive equity at 97.7 percent, followed by Hawaii (96.9 percent), Alaska (96.8 percent), Montana (96.8 percent) and North Dakota (96.2 percent).