Existing home sales in US highest in almost three-and-a-half years

WASHINGTON - Home resales rose in April to the highest level in nearly 3-1/2 years as surging prices lured sellers back into market, which should support the housing sector and the overall economic recovery.

The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday existing home sales advanced 0.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.97 million units, the highest level since November 2009.

The March sales pace was revised up to 4.94 million units from the previously reported 4.92 million units.

The increase, however, was below expectations for a rise to a 4.99 million-unit rate last month. Compared to April last year, home resales were up 9.7 percent.

Tight supplies in some parts of the country are slowing down the pace of sales, but sellers are starting to wade back into the market, attracted by rising house prices.

The housing market is one of the bright spots in the economy, which has been hit by higher taxes and deep government budget cuts.

In April, the median home sales price increased 11 percent from a year ago to $192,800, the highest level since August 2008. With prices rising, more sellers put their properties on the market, lifting the inventory of unsold homes on the market 11.9 percent from March to 2.16 million.

That represented a 5.2 months' supply at April's sales pace, up from 4.7 months in March.

Still, it remained below the 6.0 months that is normally considered as a healthy balance between supply and demand.

A very accommodative monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, which has held mortgage rates near record lows, is helping to lift the housing market off the floor.

source: interaksyon.com

U.S. housing market recovering but price rises seen modest

(Reuters) – The U.S. housing market is starting to recover and home prices will see modest growth this year and next, according to a Reuters poll, which also suggested the property market would get little boost from any Fed buying of mortgage-backed debt.

Recently there have been signs the housing sector is improving, and many economists think home building will add to economic growth this year for the first time since 2005.

Indeed, 35 of 38 economists polled in the past week said the market was recovering.

But the pace of recovery is still painfully slow. Analysts think house prices in the United States, as measured by the S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas, will rise just 1 percent this year, according to the median forecast in the Reuters poll.

That is an increase from a forecast of flat prices in a poll carried out in July, but still unlikely to keep up with inflation. Consumer prices are expected to rise 2 percent this year and in 2013.

“We still have years to go for a full recovery,” said Scott Brown, an economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The poll forecast house prices would rise 2.5 percent next year, up from a projection of 1.8 percent in the July poll.

Read full article from Reuters

source: thenichereport.com