With home prices a playing factor in the effectiveness and efficiency of the recovery of the housing market the median prices that are listed for homes is an important element to monitor. This last month prices rose 0.7% from March and reached the highest levels they have been in almost a year. In addition to this positive sign, the number of homes that are listed for sale rose to new levels after being down almost 19% from where they were just a year ago, based upon a report released Wednesday.
When comparing to last year’s numbers the median list price rose in approximately 72 markets, held at a flat rate in just 14 markets, and were down in 60. When you examine the comparable previous month, based upon the information provided by Realtor.com, they had fallen in only five of those same markets.
Prices on the rise
The prices that sellers were ultimately asking had risen as well, going up a fantastic 25% in comparison to where things were a year ago in Phoenix, 15% in the big city of Miami, and in Washington, D.C. by as much as 10%. Although prices had fallen in places like Philadelphia and Chicago, when you look at March you can see that many major cities had sellers’ prices up from 4.6% to 7.9% .
In addition to seeing distressed property numbers drop and new home numbers increase you are seeing the inventory of homes that are for sale rise with an increase of 2% between April and March. There are some areas where this is down from where it was last year, with only six out of 146 surveyed markets that are not low. Some of this has to do with a shift of single family households that are interested in new homes, plus a limitation of new construction. Inventory is down by nearly half in some markets, such as Oakland with 53%, and Phoenix with 47%.
Median age lowering
While this is occurring the market is seeing an inventory with a median age of 84 days. In April this was down by 11.6% from a year ago, which means that the homes which are listed as being for sale are listed in the market for a less amount of time. An example of this can be seen in Oakland where homes have been listed for only twenty days, which is down 55% from where it was a year ago. Even in Denver the median age was at only 32 days.
Although they do not cover the entire listing of homes for sale the Realtor.com figures do show listings from sales of over 900 services using multiple listing all across this great country. They do not include all the homes that are for sale, which feature any “for sale by owner” homes or those that are newly constructed and have not always been listed through these services.
