Home Prices Decline 5.9% in Second Quarter

Kathleen M. Howley, On Wednesday August 24, 2011, 10:21 am EDT

U.S. home prices fell 5.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the biggest drop since 2009, as foreclosures added to the inventory of properties for sale, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Prices declined 0.6 percent from the prior three months, the Washington-based agency said today in a report. In June, prices retreated 4.3 percent from a year earlier, while increasing 0.9 percent from the previous month.
Foreclosures are boosting the supply of properties on the market and undercutting the confidence of homebuyers, sapping demand even as mortgage rates tumble to near-record lows. The U.S. inventory of homes for sale averaged 3.7 million during the second quarter, the highest since the third quarter of 2010, data from the National Association of Realtors show. The mortgages on 6.5 million U.S. homes had late payments or were in foreclosure in June, according to Lender Processing Services Inc. in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Foreclosures water down home prices because banks want to get rid of properties as fast as they can,” said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “The key number driving foreclosures is the unemployment rate, and we saw that worsen in the second quarter.”
Today’s FHFA report measures changes in real estate values using repeat data on individual properties with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. It doesn’t include a dollar value for homes. The U.S. median home price was $171,900 in the second quarter, according to NAR.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net.

Geithner Urges U.S. Housing-Finance Law Within Two Years to Avoid Bailouts

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said Congress must pass housing-finance legislation within two years to avoid more taxpayer-funded bailouts.
Without action, the housing market could remain vulnerable to flaws that led to the 2008 credit crisis, Geithner said today at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington.
“We are faced with difficult choices that will involve real trade-offs,” Geithner said. “The challenge before us is to strike the right balance between providing access to mortgages for American families and communities, managing the risk to taxpayers and maintaining a stable and healthy mortgage market.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance companies operating under federal conservatorship, have been sustained by $154 billion in Treasury funds since they were seized in September 2008. The two government-sponsored enterprises own or guarantee more than half of U.S. mortgages.
“It is very important that we wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a careful and deliberate pace,” Geithner said. Moving too quickly “could shock an already fragile housing market, severely constrain mortgage credit for American families and expose taxpayers to unnecessary losses.”
U.S. Representative Spencer Bachus, the Alabama Republican who leads the Financial Services Committee, said it is a good sign that Republicans and Democrats seem to agree that the government-sponsored enterprise should be wound down.

‘Very Encouraging’

“It is very encouraging to me that there is now a bipartisan recognition that we must move toward a private market rather than one where the government backstops 90 percent of all mortgages,” Bachus said in his opening remarks.
Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan on Feb. 11 released a list of recommendations for reducing government’s role in housing finance. Under the plan, retained portfolios at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would shrink by at least 10 percent a year from their current levels of about $1.5 trillion.
Representative Scott Garrett, the New Jersey Republican who leads a Financial Services subcommittee, said the administration plan was “somewhat light on specifics and without a concrete position on a way forward.”
The Treasury’s plans for immediate action include increasing guarantee fees, raising capital standards and requiring bigger down payments from borrowers. Geithner said administration officials will work with lawmakers on ways to fund mortgage loans, perhaps by “developing a legislative framework for a covered bond market.”

‘Fully Committed’

The Treasury secretary today reiterated that the Obama administration is “fully committed” to ensuring Washington- based Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of McLean, Virginia, can meet debts, retain staff and fulfill guarantee obligations.
The companies’ cost to taxpayers is declining, Geithner said. “The loss estimates are coming down,” and are projected to decline to about $73 billion by 2021, according to budget estimates. That projection doesn’t take into account higher guarantee fees the Treasury is seeking.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget estimates predicted that taxpayer aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could total $224 billion by the end of 2012, of which $55 billion will be returned in dividends.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac requested another $3.1 billion in government aid when they reported quarterly earnings last week.

Luxury home sales jump 21% in California

Even the rich love a deal.

California homes priced at $1 million or more experienced a sales boom in 2010, the first increase in five years, even as overall home sales in the state declined, a real estate information service reported. The reason: High-end home shoppers went bargain hunting as certain parts of the economy improved but luxury home prices remained depressed.

Last year, 22,529 homes sold statewide for $1 million-plus, a 21% increase from 2009, according to DataQuick Information Systems in San Diego. In contrast, the total number of California homes sold last year dropped 9%.
"Prestige home buyers respond to a different set of motivations than the rest of us. Their decisions are less dependent on jobs, prices and interest rates, and more on how their portfolio is doing," DataQuick President John Walsh said.

"When the financial world was full of uncertainty a couple of years back, and the jumbo-loan market dried up, luxury sales plummeted. As the economy started its top-down recovery, some wealthy buyers went looking for a bargain," he said.

Savvy shoppers trying to time the market swooped in before discounted prices could turn the corner.

"Certainly, we're pretty sure we're at the bottom" for home prices, said economist Christopher Thornberg, principal with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.

Even if prices fall further, he said, "if you are borrowing, buying today makes a lot of sense because interest rates are just incredibly low."

Two other reasons for the $1-million-and-up market increase are the return of the jumbo mortgage market in 2010 and a comeback in the stock market, which saw huge losses in 2009, Thornberg said. "A lot of folks who were reeling from equity losses bounced back."

Cash purchases also inched upward among $1-million buyers last year to 29.4% of sales, up from 28.9% in 2009 and the highest for any year since 1994. But even cash purchases can be motivated by low interest rates.

"A lot of cash offers are done on the basis of the person trying to get a leg up and then they turn around and refi," Thornburg said.

Million-dollar-plus sales hit a high of 54,773 in 2005 and then dropped through 2009. Last year's sales increase came despite a winnowing in the category; 3,380 of the homes that sold statewide for less than $1 million had previously sold for $1 million or more, DataQuick analysis shows.

"There are not as many million-dollar homes kicking around as there were during the boom years," Thornberg said.

L.A.-area real estate offices also noticed the uptick in $1-million-plus sales.

"I think last year there were a lot of buyers who said now is the best time to buy," said Jeffrey Hyland, president of Hilton & Hyland, whose Beverly Hills office doubled its dollar volume from 2009. "We noticed it on the high end."

His office, for example, sold seven houses for more than $20 million last year.

"That's a good sign to the market of where we are" that high net-worth buyers are making purchases, Hyland said.

"It's like those people don't read the doom and gloom" news reports, he said.

Plus, the rich do often get richer. "Some people are more wealthy now than they were before," Hyland said.

Most of the high-end sales, 79%, fell between $1 million and $2 million. The median-size home in the million-dollar-plus category was 2,840 square feet, with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, and the median price paid per square foot was $601, down 0.6% from $605 in 2009. For the overall California housing market, the median price per square foot was $164 in 2010, up 10.1% from $149 in 2009, DataQuick said.

The most expensive confirmed purchase statewide last year, based on public records, was a 35,000-square-foot-plus mansion on 2.2 acres in Bel-Air that sold for $50 million.

But not all mega-deals are subject to the bright light of public curiosity, if buyer and seller employ legal sleight of hand.

"A lot of the sales … may not appear on public records," Hyland said of the most expensive transactions.

So the number of $1-million-plus sales, he said, could be even greater than reported.

December 2010 Existing-Home Sales Jump 12.3 Percent

RISMEDIA, January 21, 2011—Existing-home sales rose sharply in December 2010, when sales increased for the fifth time in the past six months, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million in December from an upwardly revised 4.70 million in November, but remain 2.9% below the 5.44 million pace in December 2009.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said sales are on an uptrend. “December was a good finish to 2010, when sales fluctuate more than normal. The pattern over the past six months is clearly showing a recovery,” he said. “The December pace is near the volume we’re expecting for 2011, so the market is getting much closer to an adequate, sustainable level. The recovery will likely continue as job growth gains momentum and rising rents encourage more renters into ownership while exceptional affordability conditions remain.”
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $168,800 in December, which is 1.0% below December 2009. Distressed homes rose to a 36% market share in December from 33% in November, and 32% in December 2009.
“The modest rise in distressed sales, which typically are discounted 10 to 15 percent relative to traditional homes, dampened the median price in December, but the flat price trend continues,” Yun explained.
Total housing inventory at the end of December fell 4.2% to 3.56 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.1-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 9.5-month supply in November.
NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I., said buyers are responding to very good affordability conditions despite tight mortgage credit. “Historically low mortgage interest rates, stable home prices, and pent-up demand are drawing home buyers into the market,” Phipps said. “Recent home buyers have been successful with very low default rates, given the outstanding performance for loans originated in 2009 and 2010.”
According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.71% in December from 4.30% in November; the rate was 4.93% in December 2009.
A parallel NAR practitioner survey shows first-time buyers purchased 33% of homes in December, up from 32% in November, but are below a 43% share in December 2009.
Investors accounted for 20% of transactions in December, up from 19% in November and 15% in December 2009; the balance of sales were to repeat buyers. All-cash sales were at 29% in December, compared with 31% in November, but up from 22% a year ago. “All-cash sales have been consistently high at about 30 percent of the market over the past six months,” Yun said.
Single-family home sales jumped 11.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.64 million in December from 4.15 million in November, but are 2.5% below the 4.76 million level in December 2009. The median existing single-family home price was $169,300 in December, down 0.2% from a year ago.
Existing condominium and co-op sales surged 16.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000 in December from 550,000 in November, but remain 5.2% below the 675,000-unit pace one year ago. The median existing condo price was $165,000 in December, which is 7.4% below December 2009.
Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast jumped 13.0% to an annual pace of 870,000 in December, but are 5.4% below December 2009. The median price in the Northeast was $237,300, which is 1.4% below a year ago.
Existing-home sales in the Midwest rose 11.0% in December to a level of 1.11 million, but are 4.3% below a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $139,700, up 3.3% from December 2009.
In the South, existing-home sales increased 10.1% to an annual pace of 1.97 million in December, but are 2.5% below December 2009. The median price in the South was $148,400, unchanged from a year ago.
Existing-home sales in the West surged 16.7% to an annual level of 1.33 million in December, but remain 1.5% below December 2009. The median price in the West was $204,000, down 5.6% from a year ago.
For more information, visit http://www.realtor.org/.