Lawrence Yun of National Association of Realtors

Existing home sales rose 0.6% to a rate of 4.97 million units in April. This is the highest pace since November 2009. This was slightly below expectations for a 1.4% month-over-month (MoM) rise to a rate of 4.99 million units.

March’s numbers were revised higher to show a 0.2% fall to 4.94 million units. What’s more distressed sales only accounted for 18% of sales, down from 21% in March, and 28% a year ago. A regional breakdown shows that existing home sales rose the most in the South, up 2.0%. In the Midwest they fell 3.4%, in the Northeast they were up 1.6%, and in the West they were up 1.7%. [more]

Not only have sale prices for existing homes and builder confidence risen in recent months, but sales of high-end homes have exploded, year-over-year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors cited by NBC News. Sales of homes priced above $750,000 grew 50 percent from a year ago, even as sales of the lowest-end homes, which are largely distressed, fell 4 percent, according to the realtor group…. [more]

While rising home prices are a boon to the greater economy, they are also starting to squeeze the record affordability that was drawing so many home buyers back into the market, CNBC reported. The National Association of Realtors’ Affordability Index shows that housing affordability is now dropping, as asking prices have begun to rise faster than rents, a trend that could hurt the fledgling housing recovery.

“The price recovery is strongest in the largest metros, and price gains have now surpassed rent gains in the largest 25 rental markets. However, price gains are starting to waver in smaller markets,” Trulia’s Jed Kolko, said. [more]

NAR’s Gary Thomas

The once sacred mortgage interest tax deduction could be vulnerable as negotiations regarding the fast-approaching fiscal cliff continue, the New York Times reported. For many buyers, the federal tax break that allows homeowners to write off mortgage payments is a major factor in real estate purchase decisions.

But both Democrats and Republicans, including President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney, favored capping deductions as a means to ease the federal government’s budget woes, making the deduction particularly vulnerable. Gary Thomas, president of the National Association of Realtors, reiterated the trade group’s support for the deduction but remained tight-lipped in the absence of a specific proposal. [more]

Unless Congress comes together by January 1 to renew a 2007 tax exemption on mortgage debt forgiven by a lender, the financial stress placed on borrowers could undercut other federal efforts to get the housing market back on track, according to the New York Times.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 exempts canceled mortgage debt used to buy, build or improve a primary residence up to $2 million from federal taxation. Meaning that a borrower does not need to pay taxes on a reduction in principal owed on a loan, or a write-off in the amount owed after a short sale, according to the Times. [more]

Diana Olick of CNBC
Existing home sales nationwide were down up 11 percent year-over-year in September, CNBC’s Diana Olick reports in the video after the jump. The national total of 4.75 million units sold was in line with projections and represents the continued move away from the sale of distressed assets in the national housing market, Olick said.

The median U.S. home price was $183,900 in September, Olick said, up 11 percent year-over-year. This is further evidence of the move away from distressed sales, which can be a deceptive indicator of overall pricing. Olick warns: “regular prices of regular homes are not up that high.”… [more]

As banks continue to lend conservatively, financial institutions’ emphasis on home appraisals prior to granting a mortgage has become a road block for some buyers and sellers, the New York Times reported.

One problem is that there is no appeal process for a low appraisal, which can keep a seller from selling and a buyer from getting a mortgage. Another problem is that if prices in a neighborhood are just beginning to recover, and sales are taking longer to close, it can take time before the appraisal catches up with upswing. [more]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants you to see the full appraisal report on the house you’re buying or refinancing as early in the mortgage process as possible, and without your having to ask the lender for it.

This means all the “comparable” properties the appraiser selected, adjustments for property condition or location, plus all additional data especially computer-generated estimates — that may have been used to arrive at the final value. It also means you would get to see who performed the appraisal and whether he or she is merely licensed in the state or carries a professional designation — letters such as “SRA” after the name indicating higher levels of training and experience. Plus it would give you an idea about whether the appraiser is locally based and thus knowledgeable about neighborhood sales and listing trends, or has traveled from another part of the state. [more]

A U.S. housing market with rising demand but stagnant prices may be the new normal, according to the New York Times. The numbers bore that out yesterday when the National Association of Realtors reported prices decreased between June and July even as sales of existing homes rose 2.3 percent over that same period.

Even though concerns that a backlog of distressed properties would hit the market have mostly subsided, sales of new homes have trended higher and there is generally percieved to be a shortage of residential inventory, the Times suggested that prices would barely increase over the next decade. [more]

Growth of $10,000 over last three years in the Vanguard REIT Index

Though real estate investment trusts’ returns are diminishing, they’re not losing any popularity among investors because so many other investment vehicles are actually in negative yield territory, according to the New York Times.

The latest figures from the National Association of Realtors and CoStar show residential and commercial property prices have gained 7.9 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, in the last year. As a result, the Vanguard REIT Index returned 2.8 percent in the second quarter and real estate mutual funds returned 3.5 percent. [more]