Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

U.S. Housing Market Is Stabilizing

Housing-Market / US Housing May 23, 2012 - 01:40 AM GMT

By: Asha_Bangalore

Housing-Market

Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleSales of existing homes rose 4.6% in April to annualized rate of 3.4 million units, following decline in February and March. Purchases of single-family existing homes rose 3.0% to an annual rate of 4.09 million units. The April sales tally of existing homes is the best in the entire recovery excluding the spikes recorded when the first-time home buyer credit program was underway and sales readings of January 2012. On a 3-month moving average basis, sales of existing single-family homes have been essentially flat.


Sales of existing homes increased in all regions of the nations, with the Northeast (+5.1%), West (+4.4%), and South (+3.5%) recording the relatively larger gains compared and Midwest (+1.0%).

Distressed properties (foreclosed and short sales) made up 28% of existing home sales in April, the lowest percentage since October 2008, with the exception of a similar reading in October 2011 (see Chart 2). According to the National Association of Realtors, foreclosures accounted for 17% and the remaining 11% was short sales. Distressed homes made up 29% of sales in March 2012 and 37% in April 2011. The gradual reduction of distressed properties as a share of total sales of existing homes is an important improvement in the housing sector.

The median price of an existing single-family home at $178,000 rose 10.8% from a year ago, a significant jump. This sharp increase appears to be a one-off event, with more moderate price gains likely in the months ahead.

The in-house seasonally adjusted inventory of single-family homes moved up slightly to 6.6-month supply from 6.3-month supply in March. The fact that the latest inventory-sales ratio has held below the historical median of 7.6 months since November 2011 is another piece of evidence that the housing market indicators are showing a notable improvement (see Chart 4).

In sum, the April existing home sales reports has many positives. The level of sales is stabilizing, the inventory of unsold existing homes is not severely burdensome, and the share of distressed properties is trending down, albeit gradually. Although the magnitude of the gain in the median price of an existing home is not the beginning of a long-lasting trend, the upward trajectory of home prices is consistent with other indicators of the housing market.

Asha Bangalore — Senior Vice President and Economist

http://www.northerntrust.com

Asha Bangalore is Vice President and Economist at The Northern Trust Company, Chicago. Prior to joining the bank in 1994, she was Consultant to savings and loan institutions and commercial banks at Financial & Economic Strategies Corporation, Chicago.

Copyright © 2012 Asha Bangalore

The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Northern Trust Company. The Northern Trust Company does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein, such information is subject to change and is not intended to influence your investment decisions.


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in