Report signals start of broad-based housing recovery
By June Fletcher, Yahoo! Real Estate
April 17, 2012
Could it be that housing has emerged from its funk?
While some hard-hit markets still lag, overall, a number of key
indicators are pointing in that direction and could confirm “the
beginning of a broad-based housing
recovery,” according to the latest report from Realtor.com. “We’re
seeing some hope,” says Steve Berkowitz, the company’s chief executive
officer, adding that in general, close-in suburbs are recovering faster
than the outlying ones. The report looked at data from March 2012 and
compared it with a year earlier.
Signaling the more optimistic outlook, median list prices for resale
homes jumped about 5.6% to $189,900 from a year before. (Sales prices of
existing homes eased up 0.3% in February to an estimated $156,600 from a
year earlier, according to the latest statistics from the National
Association of Realtors.)
In the 146 markets Realtor.com surveyed, listing prices were up 1%
year over year in 111 metropolitan statistical areas and 5% or more in
70 cities. The biggest listing price increases happened in two places
that had been hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis, Phoenix and Miami. The report suggests that because asking prices have risen, these two cities, as well as Boise City, Idaho, and Punta Gorda, Fla., “appear to be in the recovery process.”...
When it comes to days on the market, there’s more good news for
sellers. The median time on the market was 89 days in March, roughly a
19.8% decline from the same month a year earlier. It's a remarkable
turnaround: In March 2010, the median age of for-sale inventory was up
about 26.1% from the year before. Homes sold in fewer than 50 days in Denver; Washington, D.C.; and Iowa City, Iowa, as well as the California cities of Oakland, Fresno, Bakersfield and San Francisco. They took longer than 150 days in rural areas in southern South Carolina as well as Asheville, N.C.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Shrinking supply also has a lot to do with consumers’ more upbeat
attitudes, the report noted. Nationwide, inventory levels of resale
homes, which include single-family, condos, townhouses and coops, fell
about 21.5% from the year before, which the report says is a sign that
the market is in a stronger position than it was this time last year.
Some of the country’s most distressed markets have seen inventory
declines greater than 38%, including Oakland, Bakersfield and Fresno in
California and Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando in Florida. Atlanta, Seattle, Phoenix and Portland, Ore., also showed steep declines...
