Considering Selling Home Prices Continued To Rise In April

According to BLOOMBERG NEWS, LAS VEGAS: All 20 cities in the index showed a year-over-year gain, led by an 18.8 percent increase in Las Vegas and an 18.2 percent advance in San Francisco.

Cleveland showed the smallest year-over-year increase, with prices rising 2.7 percent. Residential real estate is regaining its footing after stumbling at the start of the year. Purchases of previously owned homes climbed 4.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since August 2011, to a 4.89 million annualized rate, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.

That report also showed price appreciation slowing as more homes go up for sale. (This is true for the valley) Homes that are priced right are selling quickly here in Las Vegas, sometimes with multiple offers. Overpriced properties have been sitting for several months. The number of homes on the market increased 6 percent from a year earlier to 2.28 million, the most since August 2012. At the current sales pace, it would take 5.6 months to sell those houses compared with 5.7 months at the end of the prior month.

MORTGAGE RATES: Slower price appreciation and borrowing costs that have fallen since the start of the year will help support sales. The average rate on a 30-year, fixed mortgage was 4.17 percent in the week ended June 19 compared to 4.53 percent in the period ended Jan. 2, according to Freddie Mac in McLean, Virginia.“Near-term economic factors favor further gains in housing: mortgage rates are lower than a year ago, the Fed is expected to keep interest rates steady until mid-2015 and the labor market is improving,” index committee chairman David Blitzer said in a statement. “However, housing is not back to normal.”Still, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association last week both trimmed their home-sales forecasts for 2014, with the banker trade group predicting a decline in sales for the first time in four years, to 5.28 million for 2014.
Marianne Lake, chief financial officer for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Manhattan, called 2014 “a transition year” for housing and mortgage markets. Most owners have refinanced into lower rates and demand for purchase financing is weaker than it once was, she said at a June 11 conference.