Daily Real Estate News

Report: Real estate market won't hit bottom this year

Nearly half of all sales are distressed

By Inman News
Inman News™

Home values fell 8 percent year-over-year in April, according to a report from property search and valuation site Zillow.

Zillow's Home Value Index is now down 29.5 percent, to a median $169,588, from its peak of $240,656 in June 2006. That's equivalent to the index's level in May 2003, the report said.

Of 132 metro areas tracked, only three saw year-over-year appreciation: Honolulu (1 percent); Pittsburgh (0.9 percent); and Fort Myers, Fla. (0.5 percent). Nearly half saw double-digit decreases.

Homes in Ocala, Fla., lost the most value (-19.9 percent), followed by Manchester, N.H.; and Gainesville, Ga. (-16.5 percent each).

Month-to-month depreciation slowed slightly in April compared to late 2010. From March to April, the index fell 0.8 percent, compared with a 0.9 percent dip between November and December.

"In general, current trends are consistent with our earlier expectations of depreciation rates improving in the spring but from absolute levels that are high enough and at a pace that is slow enough that a bottom won't be reached this year," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist, in a statement.

"Key drivers at this point are the pace of foreclosures and improvement in the employment picture."

Depreciation was sharpest in the least expensive one-third of homes, which fell 1 percent month-to-month and 15 percent year-over-year, to a median value of $93,100. Values among the middle tier of homes declined 0.8 percent month-to-month and 8.7 percent year-over-year, to a median $157,600.

The most expensive third dipped 0.7 percent month-to-month and 4.9 percent year-over-year, to a median $293,500.

The rate of homes lost to foreclosure -- those repossessed by the lender or sold to a third-party at auction -- remained flat year-over-year at 10 of every 10,000 homes.

"This rate is substantially higher than the recent low point reached in December 2010, when 8.8 per 10,000 homes were liquidated, but also less than the high point of 11.3 per 10,000 homes, reached in October before the foreclosure slowdowns began," Humphries said.

Foreclosure resales rose for the 10th straight month in April, to 24 percent of overall sales, up from 16 percent in April 2010. That figure doesn't include short sales, which Zillow said accounted for an equal share of transactions in April.

Copyright 2011

Wow, the bad news just keeps coming.

March home prices suffer double-dip setback - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. single-family home prices dropped in March, dipping below their 2009 low, as the housing market remained bogged down by inventory and weak demand, a closely watched survey said on Tuesday.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in March from February on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' expectations.

The price index was below the low seen in April 2009 during the financial crisis. The glut of houses for sale, foreclosures, tight credit and weak demand have kept the housing market on the ropes even as other areas of the economy start to recover.

The 20-city composite index was at 138.16, falling below the 2009 low of 139.26.

"This month's report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, said in a statement. "Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight."

Eight cities fell 1 percent or more in March, while Washington was the only city where prices increased on both a monthly and yearly basis. Prices in the 20 cities fell 3.6 percent year over year, topping expectations for a decline of 3.3 percent.

"The declines sustained in the last 12 months have almost erased the gains of the previous 12 months. The housing market is treading backward, but not drowning," said Cary Leahey, economist and managing director at Decision Economics in New York.

In the first quarter, the national index fell 1.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared to a decline of 1.8 percent in the previous quarter. On a non-adjusted basis, they fell by 4.2 percent in the quarter. Nationally, home prices are back to their mid-2002 levels, the report said.

Financial markets saw little reaction to the data, with U.S. stock index futures pointing to a higher open on optimism that new aid for Greece from the European Union was on the horizon.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr, additional reporting by Ellen Freilich, editing by W Simon )

via news.yahoo.com

More data that shows the real estate market is more than just soft. This quote by David Blitzer is disheartening: "Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight." We will keep an eye on this to see how things trend over the next couple of months which are traditionally good months for selling a home.