David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Homebuilders

Single-family home prices across the U.S. leaped 8.1 percent in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, for the biggest annual increase since before the housing market collapsed in June 2006, according to S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index…. [more]

Are we in the midst of a new nationwide housing bubble? Home prices are up, as revealed earlier today by data from CoreLogic, and CNBC reported this could be cause for concern. Though the numbers remain down from the 2006 peak, prices rose 8 percent year-over-year, but in other markets, they’re soaring. For example, Phoenix has seen a 26 percent year-over-year home price increase; Las Vegas prices are up 15 percent year-over-year. [more]

Home prices are up

Home prices across the nation, as well as those in the greater New York City area, rose in December, according to the latest tallies from CoreLogic. The New York/White Plains (N.Y.)/-Wayne (N.J.) region saw prices, including distressed sales, rise by 8.5 percent year-over-year in December. In the area, prices gained 1.7 percent month-over-month. U.S. prices — on a ten-month climb — rose 8.3 percent year-over-year in November. This includes distressed sales, and represents the biggest increase since May 2006. … [more]

Storm damage in the Rockaways

The residual waves of Hurricane Sandy just won’t let up for Rockaway residents. According to a new report from Douglas Elliman, the average home price in the Rockaways dropped by 30 percent to $348,095 in the fourth quarter of 2012, year-over-year, the New York Daily News reported. Moreover, closings fell by more than 60 percent to just 31 in the same quarter — the lowest number in almost six years — as many closings were delayed and buyers scared off by the storm…. [more]

U.S. home prices rose 4.3 percent year-over-year, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index released today, but New York City was one of only two markets where home prices declined year-over-year — with the market seeing a 1.2 percent year-over-year decrease, and a 0.4 percent month-over-month decrease. The index declined a modest 0.1 percent in October, from the previous month…. [more]

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U.S. home prices rose for the sixth consecutive month in September, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index released today, but New York City was one of only two markets where home prices declined year-over-year.

The national composite of home prices gained 3.6 percent year-over-year from the third quarter of 2011, returning to levels seen in mid-2003. “With six months of consistently rising home prices, it is safe to say that we are now in the midst of a recovery in the housing market,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, the publisher of the index. [more]

Home prices are improving throughout the U.S., according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released today. Nationally, prices rose 0.5 percent in June from the prior-year month and 2.3 percent since May. It was the second consecutive month all 20 cities tracked by the index reported monthly gains. Further, 18 of the 20 markets showed better annual returns in June than they did in May. [more]

Greenwich, Conn. estates

As the financial services industries continue to suffer, federal housing data shows Connecticut has suffered the greatest home price declines in the nation, Bloomberg News reported. The declines are led by Fairfield County, which includes such leafy communities as Greenwich and New Canaan, where prices fell 12.9 percent annually, according to National Association of Realtors, more than any of the 147 areas the group tracks.

The connection between the poor housing performance — a surprise considering the state’s proximity to Boston and New York — and the struggling banking industry is clear. While home transactions using conventional mortgages increased 8.4 percent, those using jumbo loans for more expensive properties fell 9.7 percent. [more]

U.S. Home Prices (source: Zillow.com)

U.S. home prices increased on an annual basis in June for the first time since 2007, according to Zillow.com, which released its second quarter real estate market report today. Home prices rose 0.2 percent year-over-year in June to reach a median of $149,300. That also marks a 2.1 percent increase over the first quarter, and a monthly increase of 0.7 percent.

Zillow.com’s report said home values reached their bottom in February, and have since appreciated for four consecutive months at “very robust monthly growth rates,” that Stan Humphries, the firm’s chief economist, does not expect the market to sustain. [more]

Home prices may be rising nationally, but many of these gains are based on the demand for distressed properties, especially among first-time home-buyers and deal-seeking investors, CNBC reported. And those distressed properties are increasingly in short supply, as banks modify troubled loans and courts work through their backlog of foreclosure-related proceedings. [more]