Existing-Home Sales Inch Up; Inventory at Lowest Level Since 1999

The inventory of existing homes for sale fell 4.9 percent to 1.74 million, the lowest level since December 1999. Check the whole story here.

Also, the trustee sales (bank's foreclosure) is roughly half of last in January. The distressed inventory is coming down fast.

CoreLogic: Prices End 2012 with Biggest Annual Gain in Six Years

Please see the article here.

“We are heading into 2013 with home prices on the rebound,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The upward trend in home prices in 2012 was broad based with 46 of 50 states registering gains for the year. All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery.”

The index also revealed all but four states saw prices improve on a yearly basis. The four states were Delaware (-3.4 percent), Illinois (-2.7 percent), New Jersey (-0.9 percent) and Pennsylvania (-0.5 percent).

Over a one-year period, Arizona experienced the biggest increase in prices—20.2 percent. The remaining states in the top five also saw double-digit gains: Nevada (+15.3 percent), Idaho (+14.6 percent), California (+12.6 percent), and Hawaii (+12.5 percent).

(Note: Bay area in Northern CA has gains more than 20%)

Bay Area Housing up 24% from Dec 2011 to Dec 2012

It's quite dramatic. The bay area housing still rose up to 2008 July level. See Mercury News on 1/16/2013 below or here.
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In a further sign of the housing market's revival, the median price of existing single-family Bay Area homes in December jumped nearly 24 percent from a year ago on modestly improved sales, according to a report Wednesday.

The median price paid in the nine-county Bay Area hit $470,000, up from $380,000 in December 2011.  The last time it rose at a faster rate was in May 2010, when it increased nearly 29 percent, LePage said, adding that the median price in December was the highest it has been for any month since July 2008, when it was $485,000.

The median price rose about 22 percent to $650,000 in San Mateo County, 21 percent to $602,500 in Santa Clara County, 23 percent to $449,000 in Alameda County and 29 percent to $330,000 in Contra Costa County.

The most the Bay Area's median price has ever been was in July 2007, when it hit $738,500. That was just before the housing market collapsed, plunging the price to a low of $295,000 in March 2009.

Please check the whole article here.

Inventory of New Homes Down to Lowest Level in Nearly 50 Years

“In recent years, new housing supply has been running at the lowest levels since the 1960’s due to the slow down in new home construction, the size of homes being built, and the complicated process for selling/buying distressed properties.”

See the whole article here.

Case-Shiller: August Home Prices at 2-Year High

U.S. home prices continued to increase in August as the Case Shiller 20-city Home Price Index increased 0.9 percent to its highest level since September 2010. The 20-city index is up 2.0 percent in the last year.

See the article here.

In bay area, it is absolutely a seller's market. 15 to 30 offers per house is not uncommon at this moment.

Home Prices rise due to Banks' Holding onto REOs ?

A sharp drop in distressed sales is one of the main drivers behind the steady rise in home prices seen in certain areas throughout the country.

In September, the HousingPulse Distressed Property Index (DPI), which measures the proportion of purchase transactions involving distressed properties, hit a record low of 38.6 percent based on a three-month moving average.

The drop marks the fifth consecutive monthly decline and is more than 10 percentage points lower than the February’s near-record-high of 48.7 percent.

Please see the whole article here.

Bay Area housing prices at four-year high on August 2012

The Bay Area's housing recovery showed increasing signs of strength in July, as eager buyers pushed prices to four-year highs.

The region logged its 13th consecutive month of yearly sales increases and the median price for all types of homes in the nine-county Bay Area was at its highest -- $421,000 -- since 2008, according to a report Wednesday from DataQuick. The median sale price has been rising for five months. 
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Prices are still 37 percent off their 2007 peak for all types of homes in the Bay Area. Contra Costa County is down 51 percent from its peak price for single-family homes before the housing crash; Santa Clara County is 19 percent below the peak; San Mateo County almost 23 percent below and Alameda County 35 percent under its peak price.

Read more here.