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But The Weather? March Existing Home Sales Surge To Highest Since September 2013
After failing to comfortably beat expectations for the last 7 months, March Existing Home Sales surged 6.1% to a 5.19mm SAAR - the highest since Sept 2013. Despite collapsing macro data throughout March all blamed on 'the weather' The Midwest saw existing home sales rise the most (by 10.1%). All this 'pent-up demand' has crushed affordability as home prices are up 7.8% YoY - the largest gain since Feb 2014.
Existing Home Sales spiked:
Homebuilders remain in a world of hope:
The detailed breakdown:
As NAR's Larry Yun explains, it's all the demand on the sidelines.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the housing market appears to be off to an encouraging start this spring. "After a quiet start to the year, sales activity picked up greatly throughout the country in March," he said. "The combination of low interest rates and the ongoing stability in the job market is improving buyer confidence and finally releasing some of the sizable pent-up demand that accumulated in recent years."
Detail on inventory and pricing:
Total housing inventory2 at the end of March climbed 5.3 percent to 2.00 million existing homes available for sale, and is now 2.0 percent above a year ago (1.96 million). Unsold inventory is at a 4.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 4.7 months in February.
The median existing-home price3 for all housing types in March was $212,100, which is 7.8 percent above March 2014. This marks the 37th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains and the largest since February 2014 (8.8 percent).
Properties typically stayed on the market for a shorter time period in March (52 days) compared to February (62 days), and are also selling slightly faster than a year ago (55 days). Short sales were on the market the longest at a median of 165 days in March, while foreclosures sold in 56 days and non-distressed homes took 51 days. Forty percent of homes sold in March were on the market for less than a month.
"The modest rise in housing supply at the end of the month despite the strong growth in sales is a welcoming sign," adds Yun. "For sales to build upon their current pace, homeowners will increasingly need to be confident in their ability to sell their home while having enough time and choices to upgrade or downsize. More listings and new home construction are still needed to tame price growth and provide more opportunity for first-time buyers to enter the market."
Breakdown on all-cash deals:
All-cash sales were 24 percent of transactions in March, down from 26 percent in February and down considerably from a year ago (33 percent). Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 14 percent of homes in March, unchanged from last month and down from 17 percent in March 2014. Seventy percent of investors paid cash in March.
Distressed sales—foreclosures and short sales—were 10 percent of sales in March, down from 11 percent in February and 14 percent a year ago. Seven percent of March sales were foreclosures and 3 percent were short sales. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 16 percent below market value in March (17 percent in February), while short sales were also discounted 16 percent (15 percent in February).
Most importantly, there is no acceleration in rotation out of renting and into owning. First time buyers were 30% a year ago, they are 30% now:
"The percent share of first-time buyers was 30 percent in March, marking the third time since last March that the first-time buyer share was at or above 30 percent. First-time buyers represented 29 percent of all buyers last month; they were 30 percent in March 2014."
And the regional breakdown:
March existing-home sales in the Northeast increased 6.9 percent to an annual rate of 620,000, and are 1.6 percent above a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $240,500, which is 1.6 percent below a year ago.
In the Midwest, existing-home sales jumped 10.1 percent to an annual rate of 1.20 million in March, and are now 12.1 percent above March 2014. The median price in the Midwest was $163,600, up 9.7 percent from a year ago.
Existing-home sales in the South climbed 3.8 percent to an annual rate of 2.19 million in March, and are now 11.7 percent above March 2014. The median price in the South was $187,900, up 9.3 percent from a year ago.
Existing-home sales in the West rose 6.3 percent to an annual rate of 1.18 million in March, and are now 11.3 percent above a year ago. The median price in the West was $305,000, which is 8.3 percent above March 2014.
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Obviously the only sensible reaction to this newz is to dump 10,000 gold contracts in a single five minute window...
...you know, for best price discovery.
Buy now or be priced out FOREVER!
This means tens of thousands of new underwater homeowners in the near future. Go long SCUBA equipment.
More like the NAR is cooking its data only to be revised down.
Secondary investments on your theme:
Xanax, Prozac, coffins and lawyers looking good to!
What a recovery, pills and laws, pills and laws...
the guy from London at it again I take it.....
Oh sorry wrong direction, so no investigation....
British Colonialism is doing great in the USA!!!
I freelance over th? internet and earn about 80-85$ an hour. I was without a job for 7 months but last month my paycheck with big fat bonus was $15000 just working on my computer from my home for 5-6 hours. Here's what i have been doing... www.globe-report.com
Ha ha ha ha ha
Homes have slowed in my area. They were hot in 2012 and last year.
Their now dropping their prices and still not moving yet.
Even my realtor here in s. Florida is a saying the opposite.
More BS stats, to be very quietly revisited later on.
A lot of greater fools about to be fleeced.
It's always a great time to buy!
Buy tops, sell bottoms, it's a tradition.
0 down
Still too much $$ down, I'm waiting for a Denmark deal.
live near NYC and houses are selling like hotcakes here...lots of bankers flush with money
Closed California Walmart Built On Former Military Industrial Complex Site
One down, 11,461 to go.
My agent called last night to report that we will be seeing an offer on our formally underwater money pit this a.m. Hopefully it is a decent offer as I want to get this damn dept monkey off my back. Will be totally dept free upon selling and will clear around 20K. Put down 60k back in 04 so adding in all the interest and money we have spent on it over the years I have to say fuck ya houses are awesome investments!
I feel so European this morning, my home was like a negative interest rate Swiss Bond lol.
Good for you, that has to be a huge weight lifted.
...fuck ya houses are awesome liabilities!
There I fixed it for you. When you include maintenance, property taxes and mortgage interest, I think you'll find that no other "investment" slowly hemorrhages wealth away like home ownership.
My Insurance is more than double what it was in 2007.
Apparently Housing Bubbles, Subprime Housing, NINJA Loans, Foreclosures without paperwork, Bundling housing tranches into Derivatives and Deregulating Banks...
Also causing Insurance Rates to go way up.
- Housing Inflation
- Property Tax Inflation
- Home Insurance Inflation
- Banking Fees Inflation
- Loss of nearly Risk Free CD Interest or Savings Account Interest
- Loss of Stewardship of USD as World Reserve Currency
- Loss of US Leadership Position around the Globe based on Moral or Ethical Position
- Most expensive mediocre Health Care in the World
- Captured Free Press & End to Free Speech unless you own your own business
- Captured Federal Government System
- Captured Banking & Central Bank System
- MIC COUP on White House and Congress
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Swoosh and another missed swing!! USA is batting Zero!! -
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I can see housing going into an even bigger bubble now.
Why not, everything else is off the charts in crazy land valuation, and now China has joined Japan and gone bazooka crazy with stocks.
Why not, how about a California home with a sand box for showering and shitting.
How long before Zeroes proclaim the improvement is just one big conspiracy?
Who pulled your flush ?
Booming here in Htown but you got shell out 20% down before they will do bidness.
I wonder how much of that Houston 'boom' is a 6 month (or more) lagging indicator...?
Fuck overpriced stick built shitboxes. Housing is up because so many people are finding quality, well paying jobs.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!
Housing is up because rents are too damn high.
Sign and drive your 30 year mortgage.
My buyers just came to me with a big list of things they want fixed before they close.....post inspection....I told them no way..you are buying a used house not a new one....I do not care if it falls out of Contract right now..as I expect 300,000 Californians moving to Colorado in the next year or two because of the drought....prices are low here compared to California....so I think our prices can double ..easy.......and I have a penthouse in Downtown Denver...its so lefty..close to a pot store and all the hip restaurants...and you can walk everywhere...mass transit is right there.....so Lefty Communist...where better to celebrate Clintons Election than from my penthouse is my thought....lol...Californian cash is just as good as Texas cash....
Best of luck with your awesome plan of getting a good price out of unemployed lefty communists.
Some of them have good pensions.
You dont need a job to get a loan....just lie on the application..its all back to 2007....o percent down and 100 percent loan to value....they can get a student loan for the downpayment...lol
You would have to pay me a million dollar to live a Colorado. Go buy your legalized pot. It will turn into a rat infested shit hole. I.e; Compton, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York.
Creating a new urban market always falls into a deciphering mode to sell people to move and fuck their wallet. It becomes hard to resell property to leave the ghetto market.
Seattle is another good example. The grunge band scene, 1990's. Colorado is just another place to sell pot and repeat the gold miners of 1800. We'll be rich bitchez.
Rant off.
Was gonna buy a home last weekend, but it was chilly and I forgot my wind breaker to the open house, just going to rent another year.
Inflationary home cost means higher property tax to increase government muppets wages.
Public/private sector dispute. Typically, it ends up by asking... Why are you raising my taxes to provide lesser services? The reply, we are saving xxxx amount of dollars. Frankly, it's about raising government wages. Squander services in increased government wages.
Just ask someone in the European Union. They will explain the scope of progressive fraud. Those people that died in boat accident were new taxpayer slaves to upbeat the system for short term losses, long term taxation game.
When I worked for Kobelco, they gave the Japanese a 10 year tax abatement to send new job creation to the United States of America. Look how that has worked out?
Same Globalisation bullshit, different decade.
The pollen outside is too thick, I'll buy real estate next quarter. BULLISH!
You can get some KILLER deals in Las Vegas!
www.ViewLasVegasRealEstate.com
BYOWT - Bring Your Own Water Tanker
10.1% in the Midwest...? That's not where the - you know, 'layoffs' in shale-frack are occurring, is it...?
I wonder how much of this 'pent-up demand' is a laggard of 6 months to a year-ago before the carnage in dog-patch...?
They should change title of article to Top 10% of US Earners & Wealthy are buying More Houses.
Sounds like a pump and dump drive to an uneventful June Fed announcement of wait and see.
.25% isn't moving in June.
More criminal market manipulation to go unpunished.
Ding, ding. It's the best time to invest in a new home for cash buyers. Beware to those risking APR rates.