Summit Valuations, LLC, announced that homeowners are enjoying significant growth in equity this year, according to the most recent data report released by the company whose industry data collected in June.
The report includes analysis from Summit Chief Valuation Officer Mark Melikian, who observed that property values rose by 15.9 percent between the beginning of 2016 and June, which is greater than the annual increases that occurred over each of the past two years combined.
“In our analysis of the industry data we’ve reported on during the first half of 2016, we found that homeowners have been enjoying significant property appreciation so far this year,” Melikian said. “It’s not clear whether this level of appreciation can be sustained throughout the year, and there will be regional variations that are not visible in the national data. Still, combining increased equity with retreating interest rates is making mortgage credit available to more borrowers and increasing the opportunity for home equity lenders.”
According to statistics from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the annual increase in median price during 2014 was 5.7 percent and in 2015, it was 6.8 percent. The data between January 2016 and June shows:
- The median sales price of existing homes rose to $247,700from $213,700
- The seasonally adjusted annual rate of homes sold went from 5,470,000 to 5,570,000
- The supply of existing homes for sale went from 4 months to 4.6
- The pending home sales index rose to 111from 105.4
- The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9 percent
- The average mortgage interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate fell to 3.57 percent from 3.87 percent
For June, the South had the highest number of existing home sales and the West had the highest median price. The Midwest experienced the largest percentage increase in the number of seasonally adjusted existing home sales, while the Northeast had the largest percentage gain in median sales price, month-over-month.