Columbia SC home asking prices continue to rise this summer as sellers seem to be staying on the sidelines.
The number of homes listed for sale rose by just 0.5% in June from May and was down 19.4% from one year ago, according to Realtor.com. Slightly less than 1.89 million homes were listed for sale in June, which is lower than at any time in 2011 or 2010.
Columbia SC Home Listings Are Down
Columbia SC home listings are down in part because banks have been slower to move foreclosed properties onto the market and investors are buying up more of them at courthouse auction sales and renting them out.
Columbia SC home sellers appear to be unwilling to list their homes amid signs that prices are turning around. Some home owners owe more than their homes are worth and may be unable to sell without taking a big loss.
Nationally, compared with one year ago, listings were down in all but two of the 146 markets tracked by Realtor.com.
Big inventory drops are pushing up prices. Columbia SC home buyers saw median prices increase in June from one year ago, and in some areas, by at least 5 percent.
Another sign of the improvement this Spring has been the median age of inventory listed for sale falling by nearly 10 percent from one year ago. That would indicate sellers are finding buyers more quickly for their homes.
If you’re considering buying a Columbia SC home, continuing to wait could really cost you. With prices on the increase, and inventory going down, there may be no better time to buy than right now. Interest rates on mortgages continues to hover in record low territory. Talk to us about your situation and let us help you find the Columbia SC home of your dreams. If you’re currently renting, owning a home may actually be cheaper than continuing to rent.
The Columbia SC housing recovery seems to finally be gaining some steam. Standard & Poor’s Deputy Chief Economist Beth Ann Bovino notes that the Supreme Court decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act pretty much stole the show recently. As a result, housing news was almost an afterthought for markets.
While the news may have been overlooked, recent data released added to market expectations that the Columbia SC housing recovery is finally starting to take hold.
Take advantage of Columbia SC housing opportunities before the market heads higher. Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation today!
Columbia SC area housing is down, as is much of the nation. According to deptofnumbers.com for 54 metro areas, inventory is down 24.2% compared to the same week a year ago. Unfortunately, these stats have only been kept since April 2006.
The graph below shows the NAR estimate of existing home inventory through May and the HousingTracker data for the 54 metro areas through early July.
Since the NAR released their revisions for sales and inventory last year, the NAR and HousingTracker inventory numbers have tracked pretty well.
Columbia SC Area Housing Inventory May Have Peak For This Year!
Columbia SC area housing inventory usually bottoms in December and January and then starts to increase again through the summer. So inventory might still increase a little over the next month or two, but the forecasts for a “surge” in inventory this summer were incorrect. In fact inventory might have already peaked for this year!
The graph below shows the year-over-year change in inventory for both the NAR and HousingTracker. HousingTracker reported that the early July listings, for the 54 metro areas, declined 24.2% from the same period last year. So far in 2012, the NAR has reported only a small seasonal increase in inventory – and the housing tracker numbers are lower in early July than for January!
This decline in active inventory remains a huge story, and the lower level of inventory is helping stabilize house prices.
If you’re thinking about jumping into the Columbia SC area housing hunt, you’d best not wait much longer. Inventory is only expected to go down, not up, and that means prices will increase. Supply and demand drives everything, and housing is no exception.
Contact us about the current Columbia SC area housing inventory that matches your price range, and we’ll be happy to supply you with an available list of inventory to match your search criteria.
Columbia SC home prices have edged up for the third month in a row, albeit ever so slightly.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s) monthly House Price Index (HPI), home prices rose 0.8 percent between March and April, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Previously, the FHFA had reported a 1.8 percent price increase in March, which has been revised to a 1.6 percent increase. Over the last year the Agency reports that home prices have risen 3.0 percent.
The FHFA monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
Columbia SC Home Prices, Sales and Inventory
The U.S. index is down 17.6 percent from its April 2007 peak and is now roughly the same as the April 2004 index level. The National Association of Realtors reported recently that in May, home prices rose, and sales slowed slightly.
Inventory shortages in certain areas have been developing since the beginning of the year. The slight pullback in monthly home sales is more likely due to supply constraints rather than softening demand. Even with May’s decline, existing home sales have recorded 11 consecutive months of gains over the same month a year earlier. The normal seasonal upturn in inventory did not occur this spring as it has typically in years past.
Meanwhile, banks are looking to alternatives to foreclosures that continue to punish home values, as seen in the reduced number of seizures. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures fell 18 percent between May 2011 and May 2012.
The recovery continues despite excessively tight credit conditions and higher down-payment requirements, which are negating the impact of record high affordability conditions.
If you’d like to discuss Columbia SC home prices, we’d like to invite you to contact us for a no obligation consultation into the current market conditions and how they may benefit you if you’re looking to buy a home in today’s Columbia SC housing market.
The Columbia SC rental market saw rents increase over the past year while home values were decreasing. In some locations, rents are up just as much as home values are down. As contradictory as this may sound, this is actually good news for the Columbia SC housing market.
The slow rebound in the Columbia SC housing market makes renting a good option for many. Former homeowners looking to recover their financial stability are joining new renters on the hunt for their first apartment and long-time tenants facing rising rental costs.
Columbia SC Rental Market Will Stimulate Housing
While it may seem that rent is rising at the expense of home values, actually the opposite is true. A strong Columbia SC rental market will stimulate home sales. The market is spurring investors to purchase distressed inventory to convert to rental properties, which may help bring rents back down as investors buy up the low-priced real estate inventory.
If you happen to find yourself being forced into the Columbia SC rental market because you are unable to qualify for a conventional mortgage, there is one piece of advice we’d give. That is, be sure to buy rental insurance.
Rental insurance offers an affordable form of protection from a range of hazards, from theft to fire damage. While you’ll need to sift through insurance policies with a fine-toothed comb to see what protection will and will not be included, rental insurance is a good bet, especially when it can cost as little as $10 per month.
If you’re thinking the Columbia SC rental market has now gotten to the point where owning is cheaper than renting, give us a call and we’ll sit down with you and run the numbers for you to see which makes more sense for you. Or, feel free to leave us a comment here and we’ll get back to you with answers to any questions you may have.