http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axsovog3CuAE
Home Prices Declines Accelerate in Second Quarter (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Kathleen M. Howley and Brian Louis
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Home price declines in the U.S. accelerated in the second quarter, dropping by a record 15.6 percent from a year earlier, as foreclosure sales weighed on values.
The median price of an existing single-family home dropped to $174,100, the National Association of Realtors said today. Total sales rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million from the first quarter and dropped 2.9 percent from the second quarter of 2008.
Prices fell in 129 out of 155 metropolitan areas from a year ago and 39 states experienced sales increases from the first quarter, the Chicago-based realtors group said. Sales in the U.S. housing market at the heart of the global recession are beginning to stabilize, said Patrick Newport, an economist for Lexington, Massachusetts-based IHS Global Insight.
âSales of new and existing homes are beginning to grow again,â Newport said in an interview. âThe market may be past its bottom.â
Home prices are tumbling even as mortgage rates remain near all-time lows. The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed home loan was to 5.22 percent last week, down from 5.25 percent the prior week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac of McLean, Virginia. The rate dipped to 4.78 percent in April, the lowest ever recorded.
U.S. foreclosure filings -- notices of default, auction or bank seizure -- rose to a record in 2009âs first half, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data. More than 1.5 million properties, one in every 84 U.S. households, received a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said in a July 16 report.
Default Discounts
Homes in or near default typically sell for about 20 percent less than non-distressed property, according to the Realtors group. Those sales reduce the value of each surrounding home by an average $8,667 because the lower price is used by appraisers to set values for other properties in the area, according to the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham, North Carolina.
The worldâs largest economy will contract 1.3 percent this year, according to a July 10 forecast by Fannie Mae. The U.S. unemployment rate may climb to 9.9 percent in 2010, from 9.3 percent this year, according to the mortgage buyer controlled by the U.S. government.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 12, 2009 10:04 EDT
Home Prices Declines Accelerate in Second Quarter (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Kathleen M. Howley and Brian Louis
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Home price declines in the U.S. accelerated in the second quarter, dropping by a record 15.6 percent from a year earlier, as foreclosure sales weighed on values.
The median price of an existing single-family home dropped to $174,100, the National Association of Realtors said today. Total sales rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million from the first quarter and dropped 2.9 percent from the second quarter of 2008.
Prices fell in 129 out of 155 metropolitan areas from a year ago and 39 states experienced sales increases from the first quarter, the Chicago-based realtors group said. Sales in the U.S. housing market at the heart of the global recession are beginning to stabilize, said Patrick Newport, an economist for Lexington, Massachusetts-based IHS Global Insight.
âSales of new and existing homes are beginning to grow again,â Newport said in an interview. âThe market may be past its bottom.â
Home prices are tumbling even as mortgage rates remain near all-time lows. The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed home loan was to 5.22 percent last week, down from 5.25 percent the prior week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac of McLean, Virginia. The rate dipped to 4.78 percent in April, the lowest ever recorded.
U.S. foreclosure filings -- notices of default, auction or bank seizure -- rose to a record in 2009âs first half, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based seller of real estate data. More than 1.5 million properties, one in every 84 U.S. households, received a foreclosure filing, RealtyTrac said in a July 16 report.
Default Discounts
Homes in or near default typically sell for about 20 percent less than non-distressed property, according to the Realtors group. Those sales reduce the value of each surrounding home by an average $8,667 because the lower price is used by appraisers to set values for other properties in the area, according to the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham, North Carolina.
The worldâs largest economy will contract 1.3 percent this year, according to a July 10 forecast by Fannie Mae. The U.S. unemployment rate may climb to 9.9 percent in 2010, from 9.3 percent this year, according to the mortgage buyer controlled by the U.S. government.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 12, 2009 10:04 EDT
