1Q home prices fall by 19.1 pct to 2002 levels

Thank you for visiting the official blog of CashNowForYourHome.com. If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page that says, "Subscribe to this Blog". Thanks for visiting us!

Home prices tumble a record 19.1 percent in the 1st quarter, drop to late 2002 levels

J.W. Elphinstone, AP Real Estate Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. home prices are at levels not seen since the end of 2002, but a closer look at data released Tuesday shows the worst may be over for some metropolitan areas.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller National Home Price index reported home prices tumbled by 19.1 percent in the first quarter compared to the first quarter last year, the largest drop in its 21-year history. Home prices have fallen 32.2 percent since peaking in the second quarter of 2006.

In cities across the country home prices varied dramatically, depending on affordability, foreclosure activity and the local economy. The bottom may be in sight in some markets, but nationally home values are expected to decline -- though at a slower pace -- for the rest of the year.

"We continue to believe that it is unlikely that we are anywhere near a bottom in nationwide home prices," according to Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR Inc.

It's hard to believe it could get much worse for homeowners in the Detroit area. Homes there are worth what they sold for in 1995. And while that's good news for homebuyers, the implosion of the auto industry and economic fallout means fewer buyers have the money to qualify for a mortgage.

"I feel like houses here are free," said Detroit area real estate agent Rose Marie Jouan with Re/Max Showcase Homes. Her house that she sold in 2004 for $200,000 is on the sales block, bank-owned, for $86,000.

In Phoenix and Las Vegas, where prices have plunged by half since their peaks, home values have receded to levels not seen since the beginning of the real estate boom. Phoenix prices are at early 2001 levels and Las Vegas values hover at mid-2002 prices.

Home values in Charlotte, North Carolina, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle are steady at 2005 prices, the best showing of all 20 cities in the Case-Shiller report. All three were some of the last to fall into the housing slump.

The Case-Shiller report offered other hopeful signs the worst may be over for some cities. Denver prices posted an increase over February, while Dallas prices were flat.

Separately, Case Shiller said its 20-city index of home prices fell by 18.7 percent from the year before, and the 10-city index lost 18.6 percent. However, the rates of decline slowed in March, the second straight month they didn't set record price drops.

Still, there are no signs home prices nationally have hit bottom.

"We see no evidence that a recovery in home prices has begun," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.

All 20 cities showed monthly and annual price declines, with nine setting annual records. Fifteen cities posted double-digit drops and Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco recorded declines of more than 30 percent.

Minneapolis posted a 6.1 percent decline from February to March, the biggest monthly drop on record for any metros in the indexes. Ron Peltier, chairman and chief executive of HomeServices of America, attributed the drop to a jump in distressed sales in March.

Economists will get a look at April housing data Wednesday when the National Association of Realtors releases sales data for previously owned homes, and on Thursday when the Commerce Department puts out numbers for sales of newly built homes. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect existing home sales to rise 2 percent from March to April, while new home sales are forecast to rise by 1.1 percent.

Receive a hassle-free offer on your property today!

Bookmark this page:

RealtyTrac: April foreclosures rise 32 percent

Thank you for visiting the official blog of CashNowForYourHome.com. If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page that says, "Subscribe to this Blog". Thanks for visiting us!

April foreclosures rise 32 percent, with more bank reposessions likely to come

Adrian Sainz, AP Real Estate Writer
On Wednesday May 13, 2009, 8:43 am EDT

MIAMI (AP) -- The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida and California showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday. Ohio was in the top 10.

More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.

April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.

The April number, however, was less than one percent above that posted in March, when more than 340,000 properties were affected. The March data was up 17 percent from February and 46 percent from a year earlier.

"We've never seen two consecutive months like this," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's senior vice president for marketing. "It's the volume that's surprising."

While total foreclosure activity was up, the number of repossessions by banks was down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March of last year, RealtyTrac said.

But that's far from positive news. Because much of the foreclosure activity in April was in the default and auction stages -- the first parts of the foreclosure process -- it's likely that repossessions will increase in coming months, RealtyTrac said.

About 63,900 homes were repossessed in April, down 11 percent from about 71,700 in March, RealtyTrac said. But the mortgage industry has resumed cracking down on delinquent borrowers after foreclosures were temporarily halted by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, together with many other lenders.

"All of these loans are now being processed pretty rapidly by the servers," Sharga said.

Help might be on the way. The Obama administration announced a plan in March to provide $75 billion in incentive payments for the mortgage industry to modify loans to help up to 9 million borrowers avoid foreclosure. But the extent of the relief remains unclear, with questions lingering about how much the lending industry will cooperate in modifying loans.

After banks take over foreclosed homes, they usually put them up for sale at deep discounts. Nationwide, sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up about half of the market in the first quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported.

First-quarter home sales fell in all but six states -- Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Minnesota -- where buyers have been able to grab foreclosed homes at discounts, the realtors group said Tuesday.

On a state-by-state basis, Nevada had one in every 68 households receive a foreclosure filing, down 18 percent from March but still the nation's highest rate. In Florida, one in every 135 households received a filing in April. For California, the rate was one in every 138 households.

Rounding out the top 10 were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio. In Ohio, one out of every 411 households received a foreclosure filing last month.

Among large cities, Las Vegas led the way with one in every 56 households receiving a filing. That was a slightly higher rate than the southwest Florida metro area of Cape Coral-Fort Myers, which saw one in 57 housing units receive a filing.

Cities in California took the next six spots: Merced, Modesto, Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Vallejo-Fairfield and Stockton. The Florida cities of Miami and Orlando were ninth and 10th, respectively.

Receive a hassle-free offer on your property today!

Bookmark this page:

Median home prices fall in 88 percent of cities

Thank you for visiting the official blog of CashNowForYourHome.com. If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking the link in the upper right-hand corner of this page that says, "Subscribe to this Blog". Thanks for visiting us!

Median home prices fall in most metro areas, recovery hinges on first-time buyers, jobs market

Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
On Tuesday May 12, 2009, 5:05 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home prices fell in nearly nine out of every 10 U.S. cities in the first quarter of this year as first-time buyers looking for bargains dominated the market.

While sales rose in six states among the hardest hit by the housing slump, analysts said the nascent signs of recovery in the market could be short-lived if employers continue to lay off workers in bulk.

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that median sales prices of existing homes declined in 134 out of 152 metropolitan areas compared with the same period a year ago. Prices rose in the other 18 cities.

Nationwide, sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up about half of the market. Overall, sales dipped 6.8 percent from the year-ago period.

"I think we're near a bottom, but we're not there yet," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. While prices could hit bottom as soon as this summer, he said, they are likely to remain stable and start edging higher slowly.

"We are finally beginning to see the seeds of a bottoming" in housing, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said at the Realtors' midyear conference in Washington, though he cited the massive inventory of unsold properties as a big concern.

At the conference, discussion focused of how to turn around the beleaguered market. Real estate agents hope the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers included in the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year will boost sales.

But in high-priced areas such as New York City, it doesn't make much of a difference for buyers. "It's not really a major motivator for people," said Robert Oppenheimer, a Re/Max broker in nearby Englewood Cliffs, N.J. "It's almost an afterthought."

Many in the real estate industry say that Congress should do more to stimulate housing demand.

"They need to go further," said Robert Sibcy, president of Sibcy Cline Inc., a Cincinnati real estate agency, drawing applause from a crowd of real estate agents. "They need to do it for all buyers."

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said the Federal Housing Administration soon will allow its borrowers to get short-term loans and turn the $8,000 tax credit into a down payment.

The tax credit, "is not only a tremendous opportunity for first-time home buyers, but also an enormous benefit for communities struggling to deal with an oversupply of housing," Donovan said, according to prepared remarks.

In the Realtors' first-quarter report, home sales fell in all but six states -- Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Minnesota -- where buyers have been able to snap up foreclosures at a deep discount. Sales more than doubled in Nevada, rose 81 percent in California and grew 50 percent in Arizona -- signaling that the worst may be over for those distressed states.

Still, the median sales price nationwide was $169,900, down 13.8 percent from a year ago. The median price is the midpoint, which means half of the homes sold for more and half for less.

The biggest drop, of more than 50 percent, was in Fort Myers, Fla. Prices fell 40 percent or more in Saginaw, Mich.; Akron, Ohio; San Francisco; San Jose, Calif.; Phoenix; Sarasota, Fla. and Riverside, Calif.

The biggest price gain, of more than 21 percent, was in Cumberland, Md., about 120 miles west of Baltimore.

"It's been more of a steady ride than other jurisdictions," said Jeffrey Repp, Cumberland's city administrator. "Unfortunately we didn't experience the peaks during the early parts of the 2000s, but we haven't experienced the valleys that have taken place since."

Associated Press writer Mark Hamrick contributed to this report.

Receive a hassle-free offer on your property today!

Bookmark this page: