Summit Valuations, LLC announced the release of its latest Residential Real Estate Market Overview. The report includes analysis from Summit Chief Valuation Officer Mark Melikian, author of the report.
“The statistics from March suggest a slower increase in the number of homes sold and sales prices over the next 30 to 60 days,” Melikian said. “Data published by the NAR (National Association of Realtors) shows the pending home sales index increased 1.4 percent, month-over-month and year-over-year. However, we see variations in this rate when we look at the index on a regional basis.”
In NAR’s report, the Northeast had the highest percentage of increases both month-over-month (3.2 percent) and year-over-year (18.4 percent). The Midwest and South reflected month-over-month gains (.2 percent and 3 percent, respectively) and the Midwest experienced a year-over-year gain of 4 percent.
In contrast to these increases, the South and West showed a decrease in year-over-year pending sales (declines of .6 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively) and the West experienced a month-over-month decrease of 1.8 percent.
In March 2016, the industry saw the month’s supply of housing, the federal unemployment rate and mortgage rates all decrease year-over-year. The median sales price, the seasonally adjusted annual number of homes sold and the pending home sales index all increased.
“In the next month or two we can expect an increase in the number of homes sold in the Northeast, Midwest and South, along with a decrease in the number of homes sold in the West,” Melikian added. “It should be noted that since the West leads the nation in median sales prices, affordability gaps may be contributing to the current decline in pending home sales.”