The following is a real estate news roundup:
NAR: Resale home price may fall 6.4% this year
The median resale home price is expected to fall 6.4 percent this year, the National Association of Realtors reported today — that drop is 4 percent larger than the group’s previous forecast for a 2.4 percent decline, released in May.
The Realtor trade group’s latest forecast also anticipates a 4.5 percent annual drop in existing-home sales this year, followed by a 6.3 percent rise in sales in 2009.
Single-family housing starts are expected to plunge 36.3 percent this year and another 1.8 percent in 2009, NAR reports, with the median new-home price dropping 3.1 percent this year.
Pending sales index rises in West
An index that gauges pending sales of resale homes fell 13.1 percent compared to last year, the National Association of Realtors reported today, but was up 6.3 percent from a record low set last month.
NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on home-purchase contracts signed in April, rose 4 percent year-over-year in the West while dropping 22.5 percent in the South, 13.1 percent in the Midwest and 12.2 percent in the Northeast. The index data dates back to 2001.
For-sale price increases in 15 of 26 markets
The monthly asking price of homes in 10 major U.S. cities dropped 0.3 percent in May, according to a report by Altos Research, but has risen 0.3 percent in the past three months.
For-sale listing prices rose in 15 of 26 market areas tracked by Altos Research in May compared to the previous month, and the largest monthly listing-price rise was in Denver, up 3.7 percent. The largest decline in asking price was in Las Vegas, down 3.7 percent. In the past three months, the asking price dropped 6.3 percent in the Las Vegas market and rose 6.5 percent in the Denver market.
For-sale inventory rose in 25 of 26 markets in May — inventory declined 1.3 percent in Miami during May and has declined 2.4 percent in the past three months, Altos Research reported.
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