Signs of Housing Recovery!!
The housing recovery is clearly here.. the recovery will be slow and (mostly) steady. Home by home, street by street…neighborhood by neighborhood. Expect the clearly and full recovery process to take 3-5 years.
More very encouraging news from the trusted folks at Realtor.com
Just the facts:
* The number of U.S. homes listed for sale fell 22 percent last month from a year earlier.
* Asking prices gained 6.8 percent due to increased demand.
* There were 1.78 million homes listed for sale in February with a median asking price of $188,000
* The median time homes spent on market dropped 9.8 percent to 111 days, indicating properties are selling at a faster pace.
“All this suggests that the market is healthier,” Errol Samuelson, president of Realtor.com, said in an interview. “You’re seeing the contraction in inventory and you’re now going into a spring market where there’s more demand.”
* Existing home sales rose in January to the fastest pace in 20 months as investors took advantage of a decline in prices and low mortgage rates boosted home affordability to record levels.
* The inventory of homes on the market fell to a 6.1-month supply in January, the lowest since April 2006, when the U.S. housing market was nearing its peak. The inventory had spiked to a 12.1-month supply in July 2010, when sales plunged after the expiration of federal homebuyer tax credits worth as much as $8,000.
* About 14 million unique visitors looked at Realtor.com in January, up 30 percent from a year earlier.
* The number of website and mobile application visitors asking for more information on properties jumped about 60 percent, on Realtor.com.
* Not all causes of a shrinking inventory are positive. More than 11 million homeowners have negative equity, or owe more than their houses are worth, according to a March 1 report by CoreLogic Inc.
* The areas hit hardest by foreclosures, such as Phoenix and Bakersfield, California, had the biggest declines in listings, according to Realtor.com.
* Asking prices rose in 106 of 146 metropolitan areas. Chicago had the biggest decline in asking prices, with a 7.4 percent decrease, followed by Knoxville, Tennessee, and three California markets, Orange County, Sacramento and the Los Angeles-Long Beach area.
* Homes in Oakland, California, spent a median 32 days on the market, the fewest of any city, followed by Denver; Bakersfield and Fresno, California; and Iowa City, Iowa.
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