{"id":5793,"date":"2015-11-12T09:42:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealdaily.com\/?p=5793"},"modified":"2015-11-12T09:42:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:42:37","slug":"home-sales-have-their-best-quarter-in-a-decade-despite-low-inventory-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/big-data\/home-sales-have-their-best-quarter-in-a-decade-despite-low-inventory-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Home sales have their best quarter in a decade despite low inventory levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third quarter, home price increases slowed down to a “healthier pace,” and home sales experienced an “encouraging lift-off,” despite inventory shortages, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). <\/p>\n

The median home price rose 5.5 percent over the year to $229,000, as sales rose 3.4 percent in just one quarter, up 8.3 percent from Q3 last year.<\/p>\n

Best quarter in nearly a decade<\/h2>\n

Ending the third quarter, there were 2.21 million existing homes available for sale, which is below the 2.28 million homes for sale at the end of Q3 2014. The average supply during the third quarter was 4.9 months \u2013 down from 5.5 months a year ago.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist, says there\u2019s no question the housing market had its best quarter in nearly a decade. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe demand for buying picked up speed in many metro areas during the summer as more households entered the market, encouraged by favorable mortgage rates and improving local economies,\u201d said Dr. Yun. <\/p>\n

He added that \u201cWhile price growth still teetered near or above unhealthy levels in some markets, the good news is that there was some moderation despite the stronger pace of sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Affordability remains a point of concern<\/h2>\n

Dr. Yun says sales had the potential to be even higher last quarter given the decline in mortgage rates and favorable economic conditions. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the lack of any meaningful gains in housing supply pushed prices in some areas above what some potential buyers \u2013 especially first-time buyers \u2013 are able to afford,\u201d said Dr. Yun. <\/p>\n

NAR has been beating the drum of affordability for some time now, and this quarter is no different as they express concerns about buyers’ ability to become or remain homeowners.<\/p>\n

California remains the most expensive<\/h2>\n

It is no shock that the majority of the most expensive housing markets this quarter were in California:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. San Jose, CA ($965,000)<\/li>\n
  2. San Francisco, CA ($809,400)<\/li>\n
  3. Anaheim-Santa Ana, CA ($715,300)<\/li>\n
  4. Honolulu, HI ($714,000)<\/li>\n
  5. San Diego, CA $554,400<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The least expensive markets in the third quarter:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Cumberland, MD ($82,400)<\/li>\n
    2. Youngstown-Warren-Boardham, OH ($90,700)<\/li>\n
    3. Decatur, IL ($101,400)<\/li>\n
    4. Rockford, IL ($102,800)<\/li>\n
    5. Elmira, NY ($108,800)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u201cMany of the metro areas with the fastest price appreciation over the past year were in the South \u2013 particularly in Florida,\u201d says Yun. \u201cA combination of solid job gains, above average shares of vacation and foreign buyers and little new construction being added was behind these areas\u2019 faster price growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Inventory levels remain low, so in some markets it’s pretty tough to sell anything, but overall, home sales are improving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335938,"featured_media":5796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[501,263],"class_list":["post-5793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-data","tag-home-sales","tag-nar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/house-front-door.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335938"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5793"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5804,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5793\/revisions\/5804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}