RealtyTrac, a source for comprehensive housing data, released its October 2015 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows that among 94 major metro areas analyzed for the report, 33 markets (35 percent) now have reached new all-time home price peaks in 2015.
The report also shows that the median sales price of U.S. single family homes and condos in October was $207,500, up 1 percent from the previous month and up 10 percent from a year ago — the highest year-over-year percentage increase since February 2014.
The 10 percent increase in October 2015 came following 20 consecutive months of single-digit annual increases in median home sales prices and marked the 44th consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in median home prices. Despite nearly four years of increases, the U.S. median sales price in October still was 9 percent below the previous peak of $228,000 in July 2005.
“Home price appreciation did not go into hibernation in October even as the housing market entered the typically slower fall season,” RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said. “More than one-third of the nation’s major housing markets have now reached new home price peaks this year, and nearly 90 percent of markets posted an annual increase in home prices in October. Home sellers are sitting pretty in this market, realizing an average profit-since-purchase of 16 percent — the highest in any month since December 2007, on the cusp of the Great Recession.”
Metro areas that have reached new home price peaks in 2015 include Detroit, which hit a new peak in October with a median sales price of $155,000. Other metros that reached a new price peak in 2015 include Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; St. Louis; Denver; Pittsburgh; Charlotte, N.C.; Portland, Ore.; San Antonio and Columbus, Ohio.
“While increases in pending sales indicate continued strong demand for housing into 2016, coupled with healthy increases in available housing inventory across the state, there remains concern over a decrease in overall closed volume for the fourth quarter of 2015,” said Michael Mahon, president at HER Realtors, covering the Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus markets in Ohio. “This concern squarely rests on continued delays in the housing transaction cycle involving new government regulatory procedures of TRID (TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule). Prior to October 2015, housing transactions were normally trending in the neighborhood of 30 to 45 days to close, but new TRID regulations have pushed current housing transaction to 45 to 70 days to close. These delays are pushing October pending transactions to closings in late November, December, if not January in some instances.”
There were a total of 2,815,704 single family homes and condos sold in the first 10 months of 2015, according to public record sales deeds collected by RealtyTrac. That was a nine-year high for the first 10 months of the year and a 6 percent jump from the same time period in 2014, when there were a total of 2,667,436 single family and condos sold in the first 10 months of the year.
Counties with biggest home seller gains and losses in October 2015
RealtyTrac analyzed 127 counties with at least 500 sales in October 2015 and where home price data was available both on the most recent purchase and the previous purchase. In 15 of those counties (12 percent) home sellers on average in October sold for a lower price than what they purchased for.
Counties where sellers on average sold for the biggest percentage loss were Burlington County, New Jersey, in the Philadelphia metro area (13 percent loss); Kane County, Illinois, in the Chicago metro (9 percent loss); Shelby County, Tennessee, in the Memphis metro area (4 percent loss); Guilford County, North Carolina, in the Greensboro metro area (4 percent loss); and Cook County, Illinois, in the Chicago metro area (4 percent loss).
Counties where sellers on average sold in October for the biggest percentage profit since purchase were Alameda County, California, in the San Francisco metro area (75 percent gain); Santa Clara County, California, in the San Jose metro area (61 percent gain); San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco metro area (58 percent gain); San Bernardino County, California, in the Riverside metro area (52 percent gain) and Multnomah County, Oregon, in the Portland metro area (51 percent gain).
Other counties where sellers realized hefty gains in October were Denver County, Colorado, (49 percent gain); Travis County, Texas, in the Austin metro area (48 percent gain); Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco metro area (48 percent gain); King County, Washington, in the Seattle metro area (48 percent gain); and Orange County, California, in the Los Angeles metro area (46 percent gain).
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