Humboldt Bay Realty

Information released by S&P/Case Shiller home price indices state housing prices for all three headline composites ended 2011 at new index lows. The three headline composites are based on a national composite and 10 and 20 city composites.

“In terms of prices, the housing market ended 2011 on a very disappointing note,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “With this month’s report we saw all three composite hit new record lows. While we thought we saw some signs of stabilization in the middle of 2011, it appears that neither the economy nor consumer confidence was strong enough to move the market in a positive direction as the year ended.

“After a prior three years of accelerated decline, the past two years has been a story of a housing market that is bottoming out but has not yet stabilized. Up until (Tuesday’s) report we had believed the crisis lows for the composites were behind us, with the 10-City Composite originally hitting a low in April 2009 and the 20- City Composite in March 2011. Now it looks like neither was the case, as both hit new record lows in December 2011. The National Composite fell by 3.8% in the fourth quarter alone, and is down 33.8% from its 2nd quarter 2006 peak. It also recorded a new record low.

“In general, most of the regions also posted weak data in December. Eighteen of the cities saw average home prices fall in December over November. Seventeen of the cities have seen monthly declines for at least three consecutive months. In addition to both monthly composites, 10 of the cities saw home prices fall by more than 1.0% during the month of December. The pick-up in the economy has simply not been strong enough to keep home prices stabilized. If anything it looks like we might have reentered a period of
decline as we begin 2012.”

As of the fourth quarter of 2011, average home prices across the United States are back at their late 2002 levels, the S&P news release stated.

New residential housing sales drop 0.9 percent in January

Diane — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:58:54 +0000

Sales of new single-family houses in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 321,000, down 0.9 percent from December 2011.

Estimates recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development stated that sales were down from the revised December rate of 324,000, but 3.5 percent above the January 2011 estimate of 310,000.

The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2012 was $217,100; the average sales price was $261,600.

The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 151,000. This represents a supply of 5.6 months at the current sales rate.

California pending home sales higher in January; short sales rise to highest level in three years

Diane — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:49:13 +0000

Pending home sales in California climbed in January from both the previous month and the previous year, according to data collected and recently released by the California Association of Realtors. Additionally, distressed home sales rose in January, comprising about half of all homes sold.

Pending home sales:

CAR’s Pending Home Sales Index rose from a revised 91.0 in December to 102.4 in January, based on signed contracts. The index also was up from the 93.1 recorded in January 2011, marking the ninth consecutive month that pending sales were higher than the previous year. Pending home sales are forward-looking indicators of future home sales activity, providing information on the future direction of the market.

Distressed housing market data:

Equity sales made up 49.9 percent of home sales in January, down from 52.7 percent in December but up from 46.5 percent in January 2011.

The total share of all distressed property types sold statewide increased to 50.1 percent in January, up from December’s 47.3 percent but down from 53.5 percent in January 2011.
The share of short sales rose to its highest level in three years since CAR began tracking this statistic. Of the distressed properties sold statewide in January, 23.8 percent were short sales, up from the previous month’s share of 22.2 percent and up from last January’s share of 22.2 percent.

Humboldt County’s percent of total sales by county of single-family distressed home sales increased to 35 percent, up from December’s 29 percent and January 2011′s 26 percent.

The share of statewide REO sales rose in January to 25.9 percent, up from December’s 24.6 percent, but down from the 30.8 percent recorded in January 2011.