The housing market is still very hot. Even with around 26% less inventory, homes sales are still at all time record levels. Let’s review the recent reports that reinforcing the strong and healthy market.
The Existing Home Sales report showed that sales were up by 0.6% in the month of January and up 24% year over year. When this report was run, there were only 1.04 million homes for sale in the US, down from 1.07 million in December. On average, homes were on the market for only 21 days. The Case Shiller Home Price Index was released showing that homes across the country appreciated by 10.4%, up from its last number of 9.5%. This was the biggest annual gain in seven years! This report, even though it was released just last week, was for data collected in December, and you could argue the market has only gotten hotter since then, so this report is forecasted to go even higher.
Lastly, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), reported that home prices on single family homes purchased with conforming loan amounts increased by 1.1% for the month of December. They also showed that, year over year, home prices increased by a whopping 11.4%. This number has been running hotter than the Case Shiller since more of this report’s weight is on the lower end of the market where demand is at its highest. Also, over the last 5 years, single-family homes in the US have appreciated by 39%! It’s no secret that the housing market is still heavily sought out by historically high levels of buyer demand which is pushing prices higher. Currently there are record low inventories, record low days of house listings on the market and record levels of appreciation. Forecasts going forward have been mixed, but the current market conditions all are positive. We have seen forecasts for annual appreciation for 2021 anywhere from CoreLogic’s 3.3% all the way to exceeding 10% from Zillow.
Sources:
http://bit.ly/2MJU6mf
http://bit.ly/3bjphRv
http://bit.ly/2MKhRdP
By: Jon Iacono