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 housing is finally recovering as conditions have boosted affordability to an all-time high. At the same time, a new study shows that lenders’ unwillingness to loosen their qualifications may be slowing down the recovery.
The latest data from the annual Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report shows that, in general, the Columbia SC housing market is in better shape than it has been in years, as employment continues to grow and home prices have rebounded — or at least stopped falling — over the past few months. Sales of existing homes have been on the rise for the last 10 months, and bottomed-out prices suggest a full recovery may come over the next few years or so.
Columbia SC Housing Loans
People are becoming more and more confident in their abilities to afford a home, but many mortgage lenders are keeping tight wraps on home financing.
Home prices are down some 35 percent nationwide, interest rates are below 4 percent and have been for some time, and at the same time, renting is becoming more expensive. But with loans harder to get, the reality of owning a home is becoming even more cloudy for some would-be home buyers.
Experts generally agree that this continued tight policy on lending is an overreaction to the downturn seen in the last few years, which led to millions of people becoming delinquent and later defaulting on their home loans, and it cost banks billions.
Many lenders are still requiring credit scores well above what would have been needed to qualify for a mortgage just a few years ago, and most also require larger down payments from those who would otherwise qualify, making it still difficult to afford Columbia SC housing.
If you’ve been watching mortgage rates plummet, and rents going up, and think now may be the time to look into the Columbia SC housing market, give us a call. We’ll be happy to sit down with you and discuss your options.
Columbia SC housing inventories are down. The National Association of Realtors 
(NAR) reports that inventories fell by 1.3 percent in March, leaving inventories 21.8 percent below their year-earlier levels.
Home sales have now posted year-over-year gains in each of the last nine months. But in almost all of those months, the number of homes for sale has declined.
3 Reasons to Explain Why Columbia SC Housing Inventories Have Fallen:
- With home prices down by one-third from their peak, who wants to sell a house right now if they don’t have to? That’s especially true for the roughly 15% of homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage.
- Banks have decelerated the foreclosure process after they were caught routinely passing off bogus documents to demonstrate ownership. That has slowed the pace at which they’re putting Columbia SC homes back up for sale.
- While investors initially were buying up Columbia SC foreclosures that could be fixed and flipped, or resold, for a quick profit, over the past two years, more investors have been buying inexpensive homes that can be rented out. Those homes are, for the most part, out of the for-sale pool for the near-term.
Columbia SC Housing Inventories Down Only Temporarily?
Of these three reasons for Columbia SC housing inventories to be down, the first two would imply that the downturn in listings is artificial, and possibly temporary. But the role of investors in today’s market could make the drop more lasting.
The NAR report also showed that the West was the only part of the country to see a year-over-year decline in sales during the month of March. The drop was almost solely concentrated around properties priced below $100,000, where sales were down 19 percent.
Are there any other reasons you can think of that would be causing Columbia SC housing inventories to be unusually low right now? We’d love to hear your comments.
Higher Columbia SC home prices are expected by 33 percent of consumers over the next year. Fannie Mae’s March housing survey indicated 5 percent more people expect Columbia SC home prices to increase this month over the 27 percent surveyed last month who thought prices would increase this year.
Nearly half of consumers expect higher rental prices as well, the highest number registered by Fannie Mae since its monthly tracking began in June 2010. Americans’ rental price expectations for the next year continue to rise, reaching their record high level for the Fannie Mae survey this month.
The percentage of respondents who say it is a good time to buy rose by three points to 73 percent, the highest level in more than a year, while the percentage of respondents who say it is a good time to sell rose one point to 14 percent this month.
Consumers’ confidence about their own finances is stabilizing, with 44 percent expecting an improvement over the next year.
Higher Mortgage Rates Expected
There is an increasing share of consumers expecting both higher mortgage rates and Columbia SC home prices over the next 12 months.
Doug Duncan, vice president and chief economist of Fannie Mae says, “Americans’ rental price expectations for the next year continue to rise, reaching their record high level for our survey this month.”
Duncan says, “Some may feel that renting is becoming more costly and that home ownership is a more compelling housing choice. Conditions are coming together to encourage people to want to buy homes.”
While the “sales of existing homes in January and February marked the strongest start to a year since 2007,” according to the combined Housing and Urban Development (HUD)/Treasury statement. “Data on home prices changed little from the previous month – marking a fifth month of seasonal lows.”
For further Fannie Mae survey findings, visit the Fannie Mae Monthly National Housing site.