Author: Paul Wheeler

Home prices continue to climb on the national housing market, according to the most recent reports.

Real estate data specialist RealtyTrac recently revealed that property prices across the country are up 5 percent year-over-year.

Meanwhile, home sales are up 8 percent.

And the news just keeps getting better for national home sellers!

More Information on Recent National Housing Market Activity

RealtyTrac recently released a report that offered some encouraging figures for interested home sellers:

• The national median sales price was $168,000 in June, up 3 percent from the month before.
• Existing home prices in the country have increased by 13.5 percent in the last 12 months.
• The median price of a distressed sale (or a property in foreclosure or bank owned) was $120,000, about 24 percent below the median price of a non-distressed home.
• Those markets that saw sales increase in June tended to be those states where there was a lingering distressed home inventory.
• Meanwhile, those markets that saw sales decrease tended to be those in which the majority of the distressed home inventory had already been absorbed.
• Cash-only home purchases accounted for 30 percent of all sales in June, down from 31 percent of all sales in May.
• Metropolitan areas with the highest percentages of cash sales were: Cape Coral-Fort Myers in Florida (70 percent), Miami (64 percent), Las Vegas (62 percent), Sarasota in Florida (59 percent) Tampa (58 percent) and Detroit (56 percent).
• Sale of bank-owned properties made up 9 percent of all residential sales in June, down from 10 percent in May 2013.
• Those top metro areas where bank-owned sales accounted for higher percentages of total sales were Detroit (24 percent), Modesto, California (24 percent), Stockton in California (24 percent), Las Vegas (22 percent) and Akron, Ohio (21 percent).
• Short sales accounted for 14 percent of all residential sales in June, up from 8 percent in June 2012. Although it was also down from 15 percent in May 2013. Those states with the highest percentage of short sales in June were Nevada (30 percent), Florida (29 percent), Maryland (21 percent), Tennessee (19 percent), and Arizona (19 percent).
• Those metro areas with annual increases in median prices of 20 percent or more were: Sacramento (35 percent), San Francisco (30 percent), Los Angeles (27 percent), Las Vegas (26 percent) and Phoenix (25 percent).
• Those states with the largest distressed sale discount were Ohio (58 percent), Michigan (48 percent), Illinois (47 percent), Massachusetts (46 percent) and Wisconsin (45 percent).

Keeping Our Eye on National Housing Market Trends

Just consider us your real estate market experts!

As more develops on the market, we’ll keep you posted on those trends and how they may affect home sellers.

More home builders are committing to projects across the nation, according to a recent Associated Press article.

In May, home builders applied for permits to build single-family homes at the fastest rate in five years.

This is a crucial improvement for the real estate market because it will help increase the available inventory of homes for sale, which has fallen short of the demand for such homes in recent months.

National Real Estate Trends

Here’s what every prospective home buyer and seller should know about the recent trends in home construction:

• The rate of homes started increased 6.8 percent in May, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914,000.
• The increase in May helped to offset the 14.8 percent decline in home starts in April.
• During the month of May, construction increased in the single-family homes sector as well as for apartments and condominiums.
• The seasonally adjusted annual rate for the number of applications for single-family home building permits increased by 1.3 percent, to 622,000.
• That figure is the highest it’s been since May 2008.
• However, when you consider all permits, that figure actually dropped by 3.1 percent, or to a seasonally adjusted rate of 974,000. This was mostly because of the more volatile apartment permit sector.
• When broken down by specific region, housing starts in the South increased by 17.8 percent in May.
• Housing starts increased by 5.7 percent in the West.
• Conversely, housing starts in the Midwest and Northeast actually fell, by 13.7 and 9 percent, respectively.
• New-home construction has increased 28.6 percent since May 2012.

Experts say that housing is the strongest part of the economy in terms of growth.

They also pointed to an increase in consumer prices as evidence that the housing market is mildly benefiting all sectors of the economy.

For instance, the Labor Department reported that consumer prices increased slightly in May.

The Consumer Price Index increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent between April and May. Over the last 12 months, prices have increased 1.4 percent.

Your Local Real Estate Experts

Check back here soon for more valuable insight on the current state of the national housing market and how it is affecting other areas of the economy.

You’ll also discover how such trends are likely to affect you as a home buyer or seller.