CoreLlogic reported that housing prices rose 7.4% in the 12 month period ending November 30, 2012. That is a pretty impressive number, especially when you consider that it includes all the distressed sales. I don't know what the price increase would have been without the short sales and foreclosures, but I would venture to guess that it might have been closer to 10%. In some markets distressed sales still account for almost 50% of the overall transactions in a given month.
This is great news for everyone since the housing market is the engine for the economic growth of our nation.
- Buyers should be getting off the fence - if you are waiting for the bottom, you also may be waiting for [enter something else that you recently missed out on here].
- Sellers can actually sell without a short sale (maybe?) and become buyers.
- Owners who want to refinance can do so with more favorable terms.
Speaking of which... I am refinancing homeowners out of FHA loans into conventional loans more and more. If there is 10% equity or more, they save interest rate and in most cases even PMI. If even works to their advantage in many cases if they have just 5% equity.
BTW - FHA MIP (do you like all those abreviations??)is becoming permanent again in the second quarter of this year, so buyers and homeowners should be encouraged to use conventional financing whenever possible.
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