Sneak Peek: The ‘It’ Paint Color for 2017

Sherwin-Williams Poised Taupe (SW 6039)

Time to paint the house taupe. Sherwin-Williams revealed its 2017 Color of the Year: Poised Taupe (SW 6039).

The company expects the brownish-gray hue to become the year’s go-to color for home interiors.

Taupe marks a departure from the company’s mostly cool-toned neutrals it has tended to favor recently. A 2016 industry survey suggests a transition from gray to taupe. Nearly 40 percent of survey respondents said they would like to use warmer neutrals – such as warm grays, taupes, or beiges – in their home’s colors. What’s more, about two in five respondents said taupe was the neutral they would most choose.

For a perfect pairing, Sherwin-Williams designers recommend combining Poised Taupe with pastels, brights, and jewel tones (such as a faded indigo hue for a French countryside look or combine it with a teal or sunny yellow for a more bold impact).

“Poised Taupe celebrates everything people love about cool gray as a neutral, and also brings in the warmth of brown, taking a color to an entirely new level,” says Sue Wadden, director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams. “Not cool or warm, nor gray or brown, Poised Taupe is a weathered, woodsy neutral bringing a sense of coziness and harmony that people are seeking.”

Take a look.

Photo courtesy: Sherwin-Williams

Photo courtesy: Sherwin-Williams

Photo courtesy: Sherwin-Williams

Article courtesy of:  Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine

U.S. Commercial Real Estate: A Favorite among Foreign Investors

Considerable press has been given lately to high-profile real estate acquisitions made by foreign investors, particularly those from China. China Life Insurance Group Co. recently purchased a $1.65 billion Manhattan office tower on Sixth Avenue; Anbang Insurance Group Co. bought Manhattan’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for $2 billion; and Chinese real estate giant Greenland Group is midway through the acquisition of a massive, $1 billion mixed-use project in downtown Los Angeles called “Metropolis.”

These high-ticket projects make headlines. But the real story lies in the steady growth of overseas investment in small- to mid-balance commercial real estate transactions, particularly as they have become available through marketplace lending.

What’s the draw for foreign investors?

Global instability, Brexit and the threat of a debt-fueled bubble bursting in the Chinese economy has made U.S. commercial real estate one of the most desired investments on the planet. The Wall Street Journal recently reported a 19 percent year-over-year increase in investment by China in U.S. commercial real estate for the first half of 2016.

Generally speaking, real estate, especially income-producing commercial real estate, is seen by foreign investors as a solid investment. Why? Because not only does it retain significant value at all points in the cycle, it also provides a tangible, saleable and income-producing form of collateral in the form of lease and lodging payments.

Overseas interest in office, multifamily and hospitality properties from coast to coast has been rising steadily all over the U.S., but more so in traditional metropolitan centers such as Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

China’s high-net-worth individuals are buying up luxury apartments, hotels and retail developments, but they’re also investing in funds and REITs to spread their investments among multiple properties that will diversify their interests across the market and, in some instances, provide for greater liquidity. Many upper middle class professionals in China are doing the same: pooling their money with other investors to buy smaller-scale commercial properties such as budget hotels, shopping centers and apartment communities.

New opportunities

Marketplace lending, also known as a peer-to-peer platform, gives foreign investors the opportunity to get involved in the financial side of commercial real estate without the headache of having to manage commercial real estate as an owner or part owner in the property.

Marketplace lending is nothing new to the Chinese. In fact, the China peer-to-peer lending market is the largest in the world, topping more than $150 billion in 2015. TheWall Street Journal reported last year that there were 1,575 peer-to-peer platforms in China, up from 50 three years ago.

But few, if any, of those platforms offer the benefits of U.S.-based marketplace lending, where foreign investors can participate in loans for individual properties stateside, such as hotels, retail centers or multifamily communities. Investment funds offer the same opportunities, but for multiple properties instead of just one, frequently creating preference among investors for providing diversity, reduced risk and, in many cases, stronger yields.

As foreign investors continue to look for new commercial real estate investment platforms, marketplace lending will continue to create new opportunities for this group.

Courtesy of Gary Bechtel / National Real Estate Investor http://nreionline.com/investment/us-commercial-real-estate-favorite-among-foreign-investors

Gary Bechtel serves as president of Money360. Prior to joining the company, he was chief lending/originations officer of CU Business Partners, LLC, one of the nation’s largest credit union service organizations (CUSO).

California Today: ‘Sticker Shock’ in Los Angeles Housing

Development in downtown Los Angeles, where high rents have led many to flee for the suburbs.CreditMonica Almeida/The New York Times

Good morning.

Welcome to California Today, a morning update on the stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state).

Tell us about the issues that matter to you — and what you’d like to see:CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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Let’s turn it over to Jennifer Medina, a national correspondent based in Los Angeles.

What does it take to be middle class in Los Angeles?

That was the question Ross DeVol started out asking himself when he began calculating how much a resident would need to make to spend 30 percent of earned after-tax income on rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles County.

The answer: a whopping $145,000.

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“It really challenges what we think of what we speak of the middle income family,” said Mr. DeVol, a researcher with the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based think tank. “It significantly changes the requirements for living a middle-class life here.”

To arrive at the figure, Mr. DeVol used median rents in the county, with a two-bedroom landing at roughly $2,000, a figure that varies greatly, of course, on the exact location. (A two-bedroom in Santa Monica, for example, is far higher than a two-bedroom in Glendale.) Mr. DeVol then looked at tax brackets to arrive at his conclusion.

It’s not simply a matter of complaining about the rent being too high, Mr. DeVol explained. It presents a challenge to the economy, forcing many would-be Angelenos out of the city and into the surrounding suburbs or even out of state.

The problem stems in part from the fact that more jobs have been created in the city than new housing. And though Los Angeles has not yet reached San Francisco-sized rents, economists like Mr. DeVol worry that it will stop the city from growing.

“It becomes a real challenge for companies recruiting people,” he said, invoking his own experience in trying to get new employees. “There’s a real sticker shock in getting them to come here. What we think of as approaching the middle class barely gets you there here.”

The median income in the county is roughly $45,000, Mr. DeVol said. And by some estimates people spend an average of half their income on rent today, he added.

“I really fear losing a big chunk of families and an economy that is vibrant enough to sustain it in the future,” Mr. DeVol said.

Courtesy of nytimes.com by Mike McPhate

What’s your experience of rising rents in the region? How much of your paycheck goes to rent or mortgage? How have you dealt with the climbing costs of housing? Share your story with us: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Mortgage Rates Head Back Down

Mortgage rates settled back down after inching higher in recent weeks.

"The 10-year Treasury yield declined after last week's post-Brexit high in anticipation of the Fed's September policy meeting,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage followed Treasury yields, falling 2 basis points and settling at 3.48 percent. Despite the decrease in rates, the Refinance Index plunged 8 percent to its lowest level since June.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Sept. 22:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.48 percent, with an average 0.6 point, falling from last week’s 3.50 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.86 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.76 percent, with an average 0.5 point, falling from last week’s 2.77 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.08 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.80 percent, with an average 0.5 point, dropping from last week’s 2.82 percent. A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 2.91 percent.

Source: Freddie Mac

Home Flipping is Hot Again

Home flipping zoomed to a six-year high in the second quarter of 2016, as more investors eyed properties to spruce up and turn over for a quick resale.

Read more: Beware of the Flip

A total of 51,434 single-family homes and condo sales were completed flips in the second quarter of this year, up 14 percent from the previous quarter and up 3 percent from a year ago. It is the highest number of home flips since the second quarter of 2010, according to the Q2 2016 U.S. Home Flipping Report, released by ATTOM Data Solutions.

“Home flipping is becoming more accessible for smaller operators thanks to an increasingly competitive lending environment with more loan options for real estate investors, who are also benefiting from the historically low mortgage interest rates,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “That favorable lending environment for flippers has helped to fuel the recent flipping frenzy we’ve seen over the past five quarters.”

Homes flipped in the second quarter accounted for 5.5 percent of all single-family and condo sales. A total of 39,775 investors (both individuals or institutions) completed at least one home flip during the quarter, the highest number of home flippers since the second quarter of 2007, the report showed.

“We’re starting to see home flipping hit some milestones not seen since prior to the financial crisis, which is somewhat concerning, but there are a couple of important differences in the home flipping of 2016 compared to 2006 when home flipping peaked during the last housing boom,” Blomquist says. “First, home flippers are realizing a much bigger gross ROI in 2016, averaging 49 percent in the first two quarters compared to an average gross ROI of just 27 percent in 2006. Second, while an increasing number of flippers are financing their purchases, more than two-thirds are still using cash to purchase compared to about one-third using cash to purchase back in 2006.”

Homes that were flipped in the second quarter took an average of 185 days to flip, up from 182 days a year ago. The metro areas that had the longest average times to flip properties were Ogden-Clearfield, Utah (229 days); Naples, Fla. (222 days); Punta Gorda, Fla. (212 days); Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla. (206 days); and Pensacola, Fla. (206 days), according to the report.

Overall, the following 10 markets had the highest flipping rates in the nation:

1. Memphis: 11.1%
2. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.: 10.1%
3. Tampa, Fla.: 10%
4. York-Hanover, Pa.: 9.7%
5. Mobile, Ala.: 9.6%
6. Fresno, Calif.: 9.5%
7. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.: 9.5%
8. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, Fla.: 9.4%
9. Clarksville, Tenn.: 9.3%
10. Miami: 8.6%

Source: RealtyTrac

Are Online Shoppers Hurting REITs?

As retail activity shifts increasingly to the online world, experts identify some real estate investment trusts that stand to benefit. But others may have a bumpy road ahead.

The surge in internet retail sales is proving to be a boon for industrial real estate investment trusts, as online retailers need space to store and distribute their goods. But the same can’t be said for Class B and C mall REITs; the ever-increasing portion of consumers doing their shopping online is putting a dent in the revenue of mall tenants, which is in turn harming the investment vehicles that rely on them.

Online retail sales grew 15 percent last year to $341.7 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. That dollar amount represented 7 percent of total retail sales in 2015. “And we only expect that to rise in the future, especially as millennials who grew up with e-commerce take over the big portion of spending,” says Edward Mui, a REIT analyst at Morningstar, a research firm in Chicago.

The bifurcated effect on industrial and retail space is evident in REIT performance. Industrial REITs in the FTSE NAREIT US REIT index have returned a whopping 21.8 percent so far this year, compared to 9.9 percent for REITs overall. Meanwhile, mall REITs are lagging behind with a 6.9 percent return.

Prologis, the largest industrial REIT, has calculated that every dollar of online sales requires three times more distribution and warehouse space than a dollar of sales at a brick-and-mortar store. That’s because when goods are shipped to a brick-and-mortar retailer, the shipment usually entails a large amount of goods delivered to a limited number of stores. But internet sales routinely involve the delivery of a single package to anywhere in the country and beyond. Oftentimes these goods travel long distances before reaching their end point and must be stored in industrial facilities along the way. Mui says that’s part of the reason why the online shopping trend “seems to be an unalloyed benefit” for industrial REITs.

Steve Brown, a real estate fund manager at American Century Investments, agrees. He says that, as a result of the high demand for this type of industrial space, rents and occupancy rates are rising: “We think that trend will continue along with the growth in online sales.”

Online retail goliath Amazon is naturally a huge user of industrial space. But so are Wal-Mart and Target, which are both building out their online presence, according to Jonathan Miniman, a portfolio manager at CBRE Clarion Securities in Radnor, Penn. He says online sales will be a “fundamental tailwind for the foreseeable future” in the industrial REIT space and adds that these companies demand high-quality spaces: “Online retailers need the newest and best assets—bigger floor plates and higher ceilings.”

Amazon in particular demands unique design and capacity for its distribution centers and warehouses, which means rethinking the relationship between industrial tenants and real estate professionals. “That requires innovations from landlords, making landlords their partners,” Mui says. “That trend will continue.” Amazon is also trying to cut down on its delivery time, and it will take the right kind of real estate to do that. So Amazon’s relationship with its landlords will only grow closer, Mui says, and for REITs that feature buildings with truly effective landlords, the growth of online sales could be a boon, he says.

But online sales aren’t a benefit to all. On the retail front, falling sales at retailers such as Sears and J.C. Penney are causing pain for some malls. “While [Class] A malls are still putting up good numbers, B and C malls have flat to falling occupancies and rents,” Brown says. “The A malls have restaurants and popular tenants like Tesla and Apple.”

That’s not to say that the retail REIT sector as a whole is underperforming. It has returned 10.7 percent this year—better than the overall REIT average—propelled by strength in certain types of shopping centers. Some retail trends that reach beyond commercial class type and indicate diversification can lead to better outcomes for shopping centers. Miniman notes that shoppers at brick-and-mortar stores are spending more on durable goods, such as home-improvement items, than on nondurable goods, such as apparel. They’re also looking for more experiential options, such as restaurants and movies. “Retailers are trying to figure it out, and the better ones will,” he says.

Omnichannel retailing, which mixes brick-and-mortar with online, is the most profitable, Miniman says. When a customer orders a product online and picks it up at a store, the company doesn’t have to pay a sales commission. Additionally, when online shoppers come to pick up their orders at the store, they’re confronted with yet another chance to buy.

Also, this trend of mixing online sales with physical locations means retailers can use their stores as warehouse and distribution centers. For example, big department stores may not be able to complete deliveries within hours of ordering, but they can be more convenient for shoppers picking up last-minute items on the way home. “If you’re Macy’s, you can’t compete with Amazon,” Miniman says. “But you have 500 stores, and you’re close to the last mile for consumers.”

Unlike some mall REITs, shopping center REITs have thrived this year, returning 16.8 percent. They are benefiting from the strong sales numbers put up by tenants such as Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, and Target, as these retailers are faring better than department stores. “Strip centers are seeing a rise in occupancy because of the improvement in the economy,” Brown says.

But at the most basic level, the strip centers are facing the same issues as malls. While gross domestic product has grown about 2.1 percent annually since the recession ended in 2009, that hasn’t been strong enough to boost Class B and Class C retail in malls or shopping centers, which have both suffered as income has stagnated for the nonwealthy. But for both types of REITs, Class A properties will continue to shine, analysts say. “That’s where the retailers want to be,” Miniman says.

BY DAN WEIL for Realtormag http://realtormag.realtor.org/commercial/feature/article/2016/07/are-online-shoppers-hurting-reits

Why You Should Own a Home in an A+ School District

Whether you have children or not, it pays to buy in an area with great schools. Realtor.com® recently released a new study that identifies the price premium to buy a home in a strong public school district, as well as the top 10 districts garnering the highest home prices and demand from buyers.

School districts rising to the top are: Beverly Hills Unified in Los Angeles; Highland Park Independent School District in Dallas; Kenilworth School District No. 38 in Kenilworth, Ill.; Rocky River City School District in Cuyahoga, Ohio; Clear Creek Independent School District in Harris, Texas; and School Town Of Munster School District in Lake, Ind.

Realtor.com® compared homes located in school districts rated 9 or 10 on the GreatSchools.org 10 point scale to homes situated in districts rated six or less. The analysis shows homes within the boundaries of the higher rated public school districts are, one average, 49 percent more expensive – at $400,000 – than the national median of $269,000 and 77 percent more expensive than schools located within the boundaries of the lower ranked districts with a median of $225,000.

“It’s common knowledge that buyers are often willing to pay a premium for a home in a strong school district,” says Javier Vivas, research analyst for realtor.com®. “Our analysis quantifies just how good it is to be a seller in these areas. On average, homes in top-rated districts attract a price premium of almost 50 percent and sell more than a week faster than those located in neighboring lower ranked school districts.”

Houses located in these areas, on average, also move eight days faster than homes in below average school districts and sell four days faster – at 58 days – than the national average of 62 days. Additionally, properties within the boundaries of higher-rated school districts are viewed 26 percent more, on average, than the average home on realtor.com® (an indicator of buyer demand) and 42 percent more than homes in areas with below average schools. 

A look at the top school districts

Highest Price Premiums
In top-ranked Beverly Hills Unified School District, homes sell for 689 percent more, at $3.8 million, than other homes in Los Angeles County, at $550,000. That’s 1.6 times the premium of homes located in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District – rated 9 – that covers Santa Monica, Calif. and Malibu, Calif. and has a median list price of $2.5 million. Beverly Hills’s price premium is 3.9 times more than Culver City Unified School District in Culver City, Calif. that has a rating of 8 and a median list price of $975,000.

The district with the second highest home price premium is Highland Park Independent School District in Dallas where homes are 632 percent more expensive at $1.8 million than the median home in Dallas County at $277,000. Homes in Highland Park are 3.7 times and 4.4 times more expensive, respectively, than neighboring districts of Coppell Independent School District in Coppell, Texas – rated 9 – with a median of $470,000 and Dallas Independent School District in Dallas – rated  5 – with a median of $400,000, respectively.

Kenilworth School District No. 38 in Kenilworth, Ill., where homes carry a median sales price of $1.6 million, ranked third in the nation with its home price premium of 606 percent compared to Cook County. That’s 2.1 times more than the neighboring district of Wilmette Public Schools District 39 in Wilmette, Ill., rated 10 by GreatSchools, with a median list price of $780,000, and 1.2 times more than Winnetka School District 36  in Winnetka, Ill., rated 10, with a median list price of $1.4 million. Winnetka School District 36 is also ranked fifth in the nation for its home price premium.

Rounding out the Top 10 school districts with the highest price premiums are: Indian Hill Exempted Village School District – Hamilton, Ohio; Winnetka School District 36 – Winnetka, Ill.; Manhattan Beach Unified School District – Los Angeles; Scarsdale Union Free School District – Westchester, N.Y.; Saddle River School District – Bergen, N.J.; San Marino Unified School District – Los Angeles; and Mariemont City School District – Hamilton, Ohio. See chart below for additional detail.

Highest Demand from Home Buyers
The district with the highest home buyer demand – as measured by realtor.com® listing views compared to the surrounding county – is Rocky River City School District in Cuyahoga, Ohio, rated 10, where listings within district boundaries receive 2.8 times more views than other areas in Cuyahoga County. Homes in the Rocky River District also receive 1.7 and 1.5 times more listing views, respectively, than Westlake City School District in Westlake, Ohio ranked 9 by GreatSchools and Lakewood City School District in Lakewood, Ohio with a GreatSchools rating of 6.

Vivas adds, “While highly ranked school districts in these markets have pushed home prices higher than their surrounding areas, the majority of these high demand markets are relatively affordable when compared to the national median, which is a big factor contributing to their popularity.”

The second most popular school district in the nation for home buyers is Clear Creek Independent School District in Harris, Texas. It garners 2.2 times the listing views of Harris County and 1.2 and 1.0 times as many views, respectively, as nearby districts of Pasadena in Pasadena, Texas (rated 5) and La Porte Independent School District in La Porte, Texas.

Coming in as the third most viewed school district for home buyers,  School Town of Munster School District in Lake, Ind., has a GreatSchools rating of 9 and receives nearly 2.2 more listings views than other homes in the county. That’s 1.36 more views than neighboring district of School Town Of Highland Independent School District, rated 6, in Highland, Ind.

Completing the Top 10 list are Orange School District – New Haven, Conn.; Etiwanda Elementary School District – San Bernardino, Calif.; Longmeadow School District – Hampden, Mass.; Strongsville City School District – Cuyahoga, Ohio; Plymouth-Canton Community School – District Wayne, Mich.; and Regional School District 05 School – District New Haven, Conn.

For more information, visit www.realtor.com.

Where Low Down Payment Loans Are Easiest

In some metros, home buyers are putting less down on a home purchase than in other areas, a new report from the Urban Institute shows.

Read more: Survey: Save for 3 Years for a Down Payment

The study, which uses data from CoreLogic, covers the period between May 1 and May 31 of this year and identifies the mean origination FICO score for each metro area. The area’s loan-to-value (LTV) ratio was also factored in to determine how low the down payments actually were (e.g. higher the LTV, the lower the down payment).

Overall, the metros struggling the most economically had the lowest FICO scores and lowest down payments, the study found.

“What you’re seeing is a reflection of the lower economy,” says Sheryl Pardo, spokesperson for the institute. “(The Federal Housing Administration) is an important player in those local communities … it’s helping people get on the ladder to home ownership.”

The Urban Institute identified the following seven metro areas as having the lowest down payment averages:

Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia, Mich.

• Average FICO score: 728
• Average loan-to-value: 90%

Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla.

• Average FICO score: 732
• Average loan-to-value: 84%

Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio

• Average FICO score: 733
• Average loan-to-value: 88%

Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev.

• Average FICO score: 735
• Average loan-to-value: 88%

San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas

• Average FICO score: 736
• Average loan-to-value: 90%

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas

• Average FICO score: 736
• Average loan-to-value: 86%

Cincinnati, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.

• Average FICO score: 736
• Average loan-to-value: 89%

Source: “10 Cities Where Low Down-Payment Mortgages Are King,” Credit.com (Sept. 10, 2016)

Lenders Go After the ‘Zombie’ Homes

Banks want to get rid of “zombie” foreclosures and prevent them from haunting housing markets. At the end of the third quarter, 18,304 residential properties in the foreclosure process were vacant (dubbed “zombie foreclosures), a 9 percent drop from a year ago.

Read more: Metros Plagued With Surging Vacancies

That represents about 4.7 percent of all residential properties in foreclosures in the third quarter, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q3 2016 U.S. Residential Property Vacancy and Zombie Foreclosure Report.

“A strong seller’s market along with political pressure has likely motivated lenders to complete the foreclosure process over the past year on many vacant properties that were lingering in foreclosure limbo for years,” says Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “While that has reduced the number of vacant properties in the foreclosure process — so-called zombie foreclosures — it has also resulted in a corresponding rise in the number of vacant bank-owned homes. Assuming that the foreclosing lenders are maintaining these properties and paying the property taxes, they pose less of a threat to neighborhood quality than zombie foreclosures, but they still represent latent inventory in an inventory-starved housing market.”

Overall, nearly 1.4 million residential properties were vacant by the end of the third quarter.

The following markets had the highest number of vacant REOs:

• Florida: 5,880
• Michigan: 4,661
• Ohio: 3,585
• Illinois: 2,652
• Georgia: 2,626

At a metro level, the areas with the most vacant REOs were: Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, and New York, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the states with the highest number of vacant foreclosures – or zombies – were in New Jersey (3,698), New York (3,556), Florida (2,528), Illinois (1,018) and Ohio (999). At a metro level, zombie foreclosures were highest in New York (3,590), Philadelphia (1,525), Chicago (783), Miami (694), and Tampa (603).

Source: RealtyTrac

August 2016 National Housing Trends eNewsletter

Angela Yglesias

Levesque Realty 

Cell: 805-490-4944   
Phone: 805-490-4944 

Housing Trends August 2016 View archives

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National market update

Existing-Home Sales Lose Steam in July

WASHINGTON (August 24, 2016) — Slowed by frustratingly low inventory levels in many parts of the country, existing-home sales lost momentum in July and decreased year-over-year for the first time since November 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Only the West region saw a monthly increase in closings in July.



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The Best Time to Invest Is Now?

Columnist Jeff Reeves with MarketWatch says right now is the best time ever to invest in real estate. He discounts fears by some about another housing crisis brewing – the uptick in "liar loans” or "Alt-A mortgages” and return of house flipping. He says any such bubble fears amount to "a lot of hogwash.



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National housing indicators

Existing home sales (July)

5.39 millions units*

Existing home median price (July)

$244,100

Housing Starts (July)

1.211 millions units*

New home sales (June)

0.654 millions units*

*Seasonally adjusted annual rate. Source: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

National economic indicators

Home ownership

1st Qtr 2016

+63.5%

1st Qtr 2015

+63.7%

The homeownership rate of 63.5 percent was 0.2 percentage points (+/-0.4)* lower than the first quarter 2015 rate (63.7 percent) and 0.3 percentage points (+/-0.4)* lower than the fourth quarter 2015 rate (63.8 percent).

New home sales

May 2016

+6.0%

April 2016

+16.6%

Sales of new single-family houses in May 2016 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 551,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 6.0 percent (±12.8%)* below the revised April rate of 586,000, but is 8.7 percent (±14.6%)* above the May 2015 estimate of 507,000.

Source: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

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Consumer tips & hot properties

Bubble Watch: Should We Be Worried?

With home prices rising faster than inflation, many are wondering whether the housing market is heading for another crash. We analyzed the situation in top cities across the nation.


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The Worst Home-Buying Advice People Actually Believe

Thinking of buying a home? If you hear any of these "wise words" from well-meaning friends or family, just tune them out.


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Deep-Clean These 12 Things Before Summer Ends

The hot season is the best time for major cleaning projects. Here's how to get them done before the days get shorter.


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How to Spark a Bidding War for Your Home

The housing market may be hot, but that doesn't necessarily mean that buyers will be competing for your home.


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Backyard Landscaping Ideas You Can't Resist

Fire pits, ponds, and butterfly gardens–here are the outdoor features that will make you wish you never had to come inside.


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Existing Home Statistics

View statistics based on national data, regional data and data gathered from 159 cities & metropolitan areas.

National Statistics

• Housing Affordability Index
• National Existing Home Sales
• National Sales Price of Existing Homes

Statistics by City or Metropolitan Area

• Single-family Home Prices
• Condo/Co-op Prices

Regional Statistics

• Existing Home Sales
• Sales Price of Existing Homes
• Existing Single Family Home Sales
• Sales Price of Existing Single-Family Homes
• Existing Condo/Co-op Sales
• Sales Price of Existing Condo/Co-op Homes

Source: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

Housing Trends eNewsletter is filled with U.S. Census Bureau key market indicators, consumer videos, blogs, a real estate glossary, mortgage rates and calculators, consumer articles, real estate radio, realtor.com® local community reports and local and national real estate sales and price activity provided by local MLSs and the National Association of REALTORS®.

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