Real estate market recap, Aug. 10-14

BuildZoom’s residential construction and remodeling indices showed:

• New-home permit activity in the U.S. remains 60.7 percent below 2005 levels.
• In contrast, activity in the remodeling industry (by permits pulled) has fully recovered from the housing bust and is 3.4 percent above its 2005 level.
• Four of the nation’s five largest metros have seen noticeable year-over-year improvement in new-home construction; however, these levels still significantly trail activity seen in 2005.

Auction.com’s July existing-home sales predictions were revised to show:

• Auction.com has revised its July existing-home sales projections and now expects roughly 5.57 million annual home transactions.
• The revision represents a 1.4 percent increase from June — a more modest increase than initially forecasted.
• It also represents a decline of 100,000 sales in comparison to the initial July forecast of 5.67 million.

Dan Geller’s Money Anxiety Index showed:

• Compared to the beginning of this year, consumers are less financially stressed, which bodes well for home sales activity moving forward.
• Consumer anxiety dropped by 0.1 point to 66.9 in August.
• The main reasons for the decline in financing anxiety are the improving labor market, the prospect of future employment in higher-paying jobs and a rise in current earnings.

Quicken’s Home Price Perception Index showed:

• Homeowners think their homes should be valued higher than appraisers do.
• Appraiser opinions of home values were 2.33 percent lower than homeowner estimates in July.
• National housing values were nearly flat in July, with a 0.27 percent drop in value month over month.

NAR’s quarterly report showed:

• NAR said single-family home prices increased in 93 percent of markets during the second quarter.
• Nineteen metro areas saw double-digit increases in the second quarter.
• The average supply during 2Q was 5.1 months, a decrease from the 5.5 months NAR reported in 2Q 2014.

CoreLogic’s foreclosure inventory report showed:

• Foreclosure inventory dropped by 28.9 percent and completed foreclosures declined by 14.8 percent between June 2014 and June 2015.
• The foreclosure rate of 1.2 percent is the lowest since December 2007.
• June also posted the lowest serious delinquency rate seen in some time.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate and CNET’s smart home survey showed:

• 81 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to buy a home if smart technology were already installed.
• Smart home technology is most often utilized in the living room, followed by the bedroom, family/recreation room and kitchen.
• Smart home technology is saving owners an average of $98.30 per month, which equates to more than $1,100 a year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association Weekly Applications Survey showed:

• Mortgage applications increased only 0.1 percent from last week.
• FHA and USDA applications both decreased, but VA applications saw a slight increase.
• Mortgage applications for existing homes have been somewhat flat for about two months, according to MBA’s weekly surveys.

Trulia’s listing data study showed:

• States that don’t have good, consistent school systems have more listings containing the word “school.”
• Orange County, California, led the way, with 27.6 percent of listings mentioning schools.
• Only 1 percent of all U.S. homes for sale on Trulia during the 12-month period analyzed were described as being near a “good” school.

The Institute of Real Estate Management’s apartment manager study showed:

• Marketing leasable space is considerably more important to apartment managers than overseers of office buildings.
• More than 80 percent of apartment managers ranked marketing and leasing functions as an “important” or “very important” aspect of operations.
• Hiring, staffing and employee engagement/retention is also more important for apartment managers, as employee turnover tends to be higher in the industry.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s new-home applications survey showed:

• Mortgage applications for newly built homes are decreasing; new-home applications fell by 4 percent month over month.
• On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimated there were 44,000 new-home sales in July, a decrease of 2.2 percent from June’s 45,000 sales.
• New single-family home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 534,000 units last month, an increase of 7.7 percent from June’s pace of 496,000 units.

RealtyTrac’s loan origination report showed:

• Total loan origination volume reached its highest level in two years.
• More than 1.95 million loans, worth $540 billion, were created for single-family homes and condos during the second quarter of 2015.
• This equates to a 23 percent increase in origination volume when compared to the second quarter of 2014. It also represents a 22 percent rise in loan activity from the first quarter of this year.

Move’s “hottest” ZIP codes index showed:

• Most of the “hottest” ZIP codes for housing encompass submarkets or suburbs of larger metros.
• 02176 in Melrose, Massachusetts — a submarket of Boston — is the hottest ZIP for housing in the nation.
• The rankings are determined by the time it takes properties to sell and the frequency in which homes are viewed in each ZIP code.

Zillow’s rent vs. own survey showed:

• Escalating rent prices are eating up a significant portion of renters’ income.
• Renters can expect to spend 30 percent of their income on rent — the highest percentage we have seen to date.
• Buyers can expect to spend 15 percent of their monthly income on a monthly mortgage payment.

The FNC Residential Price Index showed:

• The average U.S. home price increased by 3.5 percent in the second quarter of 2015 when compared to the first quarter.
• During the second quarter, 12 metro areas experienced overall price growth of 4 percent or more.
• Only one market out of the 30 analyzed by FNC witnessed quarter-over-quarter depreciation: Baltimore.

Email market updates to press@inman.com.