Single Family Residential Existing-Home Sales Increase for Second Consecutive Month; Median Home Price Falls
According to RE/MAX Valley Real Estate’s Mahoning Valley Housing Report (MVHR) for March, single family residential closed transactions were up (0.5 percent) for the second consecutive month, but year over year comparison of closed transactions continues it’s steady, 37 month long decline. Home prices also fell rather sharply for the second straight month, as the median price of a home in the Valley fell 1.3 percent. On a second positive note, our measure of the annual absorption rate remained unchanged in March after edging up only slightly in February.
Nationwide housing affordability during the fourth quarter of 2010 rose to its highest level in the 20 years since it has been measured, according to National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) data released today.
Home values in the United States posted their largest quarterly decline since the first quarter of 2009, falling 2.6 percent as the temporary stimulus of the home buyer tax credits wore off, according to Zillow’s fourth quarter Real Estate Market Reports. The Zillow Home Value Index declined 5.9 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter to $175,200. Home values have fallen 27 percent since they peaked in June 2006.
RE/MAX Valley Real Estate’s Mahoning Valley Housing Report (MVHR) for January single family residential home sales fell to record lows for the MVHR both month over month and year over year. A disappointing performance, considering the promise displayed in December. Despite the malaise in sales prices continue stabilize as the median home price in the Valley increased slightly. The supply of active inventory fell again month over month, but not enough to keep the annual absorption rate from continuing to climb.
Defying the seasonal trend, December home sales rose by 13.2% from November in a survey of 54 metropolitan areas. Home sales dropped 5.0% from December 2009, but this is the lowest year-over-year drop the survey has seen in five months. While some industry analysts continue to predict a serious decline in home prices in the New Year, The RE/MAX National Housing Report, showed home prices dropped by only 2.2% from levels in December 2009. The inventory of homes for sale continued a downward trend, falling 8.8% from November and 2.9% from December 2009.
10,458 Ohio properties saw foreclosure actions (default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions) in November. That’s down 21 percent from the previous month and a one percent drop from November of 2009, so says RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. 
U.S. house prices fell in the third quarter of 2010 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) seasonally adjusted purchase-only House Price Index (HPI). The HPI calculates home sales price information from Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-acquired mortgages. Although the HPI reports sinking prices from nearly every major metro prices in Mahoning Valley appears to be stabilizing.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Americans still think a home is the best investment a family can make. That’s nearly identical to last month, but it’s down from the high 50s and low 60s that this survey routinely found going back to April of last year. Clearly, faith in home ownership as the “American Dream” is a bit soiled in the minds of many Americans.