CHARLOTTE FORECLOSURES FALL IN APRIL

Foreclosure rates in the Charlotte area fell in April from the same month last year, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic.

In the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill area, the rate of foreclosures among outstanding mortgage loans was 2.33 percent, down from 3.43 percent a year ago. The decrease marks the third consecutive month that foreclosure rates have fallen in the area.

The Charlotte-area rate remained lower than the national rate of 2.65 percent.

Fewer mortgages were delinquent in April from a year ago, CoreLogic said. In April, 5.52 percent of mortgage loans were 90 days or more delinquent, down from 6.82 percent last year.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/25/4128377/charlotte-home-prices-climb-73.html#storylink=cpy

Charlotte home prices climb 7.3 percent in April | CharlotteObserver.com

Charlotte home prices climb 7.3 percent in April | CharlotteObserver.com

Charlotte-area home prices jumped 7.3 percent in April from the same month last year, marking the largest year-over-year gain the city has seen since March 2012.

The jump, recorded Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index, reflects a broader trend: The housing market is improving for sellers across the nation. The Charlotte area joined 19 other cities that showed positive year-over-year growth for at least four months in a row.

Charlotte has recorded year-over-year price gains on the index for 13 consecutive months – every month since March 2012.

Compared with last month, Charlotte’s home prices also saw a 2 percent increase, the area’s second consecutive monthly increase.

Despite the gains, the Charlotte area lagged behind the national averages for both the year-over-year increase and the monthly increases. For April, average home prices saw a 12.1 percent year-over-year increase among the 20 cities tracked by the index. San Francisco was No. 1 for April, with an average year-over-year increase of 23.9 percent – more than three times higher than that of the Charlotte area.

From March to April, the national average for home prices among 20 cities rose 2.5 percent – half a percentage point higher than gains in the Charlotte area.

David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee, said in a statement that the national data confirm the housing recovery’s strength.

“The 20-city composites posted their highest monthly gains in the history of S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices,” Blitzer said. “Thirteen cities posted monthly increases of over two percentage points, with San Francisco leading at 4.9 percent.”

The release of the Case-Shiller numbers comes on the heels on comments last week from Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, that the Fed will eventually begin pulling back on its economic stimulus policies – provoking concern that interest rates will rise sooner than many anticipated.

While Blitzer noted that the Fed’s announcement has sparked fear that rising mortgage rates will damage the housing market, he said Tuesday that the housing market will continue to recover.

“Home buyers have survived rising mortgage rates in the past, often by shifting from fixed rate to adjustable rate loans,” he said.

Blitzer added that recent data indicate banks are easing credit restrictions – a move that would allow the housing market recovery to continue.

Case-Shiller also announced that as of April, home prices across the U.S. are back to their early 2004 levels, but still remain 26 percent to 27 percent below their peaks in June and July 2006.

That national trend held true for Charlotte, which posted home prices in April similar to those of April 2004.

In April 2013, the median sales price for the Charlotte area was $167,000, while the average sales price was $217,166, according to data from the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association. In April 2004, the median home price for Mecklenburg County was $160,000 and the median sales price was $220,894, the association said.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/25/4128377/charlotte-home-prices-climb-73.html#storylink=cpy

Charlotte’s housing market recovery is on track | CharlotteObserver.com

Charlotte’s housing market recovery is on track | CharlotteObserver.com

By ALLEN NORWOOD

Posted: Thursday, Jun. 13, 2013

COLUMNISTS »

ALLEN NORWOOD

Allen Norwood writes on Home design, do-it-yourself and real estate for The Charlotte Observer. His column appears each Saturday.

E-mail Allen

No, say leading housing economists, the country won’t slip back into recession. There are plenty of hurdles ahead for housing and the broader economy, lots of ups and downs, but no recession. We’re past that.

If worrying about that has been keeping you up at night, get some sleep.

What’s more, said Trulia’s chief economist Jed Kolko, there are three more things you don’t need to worry about: a housing bubble, investors continuing to snatch up whole streets and too few houses for sale.

Kolko was one of three economists on a panel at the recent convention in Atlanta of the National Association of Real Estate Editors. The others were Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, and Mark Fleming, top economist for real estate data firm CoreLogic. They offered their takes on the economy at midyear and looked ahead.

Kolko’s comments caught my ear because lots of homeowners do worry, even those who aren’t wrestling with whether to buy or sell. Your home may well be your biggest single investment.

“Overall, the recovery is doing what it should,” he said, before he listed three things we don’t need to worry about. Sales and prices are up, foreclosures down.

Here are Kolko’s things to scratch off your worry list:

• Nationally, the housing market isn’t in “bubble trouble.” Prices are rising rapidly in some markets, but broadly, any bubble is a long way off.

Overall, home prices are about 7 percent undervalued relative to income and rent, he said. There’s little sign of overbuilding. At the peak, homes were 39 percent overvalued.

Price increases will slow down, due to rising mortgage interest rates and other factors.

• You also don’t need to worry if interest rates tick up a little bit. At 3.5 percent, Kolko said, buying is 44 percent cheaper than renting. Rates would have to climb into double digits before it would be cheaper to rent.

• Investor interest will fade. This is a tough one because there’s real disagreement over the impact of large investors. Economists, including Kolko, often defend them. “Don’t trash investors,” he said. “Without investors, this recovery would have been a lot worse.”

Other industry watchers worry about the impact on communities when those investors sell all those bargain houses after five to seven years. They bought distressed homes by the thousands – and can dump them the same way.

Kolko said investors will increasingly lose interest as prices and rates rise and distressed sales fall.

• More homeowners will decide to sell. Realtors across the country, including Charlotte, say lack of inventory is hampering sales. There just aren’t enough homes on the market. That will change, Kolko said.

Special to the Observer: homeinfo@charter.net

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/13/4104269/charlottes-housing-market-recovery.html#storylink=cpy

CoreLogic: April home prices up 9.2% in Charlotte area from year earlier - Charlotte Business Journal

CoreLogic: April home prices up 9.2% in Charlotte area from year earlier - Charlotte Business Journal

Susan Stabley

Staff Writer-Charlotte Business Journal

Home prices for the Charlotte area, including distressed sales, jumped 9.2 percent in April from the same time last year, according to CoreLogic Inc.’s index report released today.

The Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill metropolitan statistical area also showed a larger increase in month-over-month figures, compared with earlier reports. Home prices rose 4 percent in April from March. By comparison, March’s home prices rose 2.9 percent from February’s figures, and they increased just 0.4 percent in February from January.

Year-over-year home prices showed greater improvement when distressed sales, such as short sales and real estate owned transactions, are excluded. With those sales removed from the calculation, home prices in the region in April were up 12.9 percent from a year earlier. On a month-to-month basis, home prices rose 4.3 percent in April from March, with distressed sales excluded.

"The pace of the housing market recovery quickened in April as home prices rose across the U.S.," says Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic president and chief executive. "For the second consecutive month, all 50 states registered year-over-year home price gains, excluding sales of distressed homes. We expect this trend to continue, bolstered by tight supplies and pent-up buyer demand."

CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index report says April national home prices with distressed-property sales included improved year-over-year by 12.1 percent, representing the largest annual increase since February 2006.

Today’s report also marks 14 months in a row of monthly increases in home prices nationwide, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based data firm (NYSE:CLGX). U.S. home prices grew 3.2 percent in April from March.

Remove the distressed sales from the figures, and home prices rose 11.9 percent when comparing April 2013 to April 2012, and 3 percent month-over-month.

"House price growth continues to surprise to the upside, with an impressive 12.1 percent gain year over year in April," Mark Fleming, CoreLogic chief economist, says in the report. "Increasing demand for new and existing homes, coupled with low inventory, has created a virtuous cycle for price gains, most clearly seen in the Western states with year-over-year gains of 20 percent or more."

US home prices jumped in April by most in 7 years | CharlotteObserver.com

US home prices jumped in April by most in 7 years | CharlotteObserver.com

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

Posted: Tuesday, Jun. 04, 2013

WASHINGTON U.S. home prices soared 12.1 percent in April from a year earlier, the biggest gain since February 2006, as more buyers competed for fewer homes.

Real estate data provider CoreLogic says prices rose in April from the previous April in 48 states. Prices also rose 3.2 percent in April from March, much better than the previous month-to-month gain of 1.9 percent.

Prices in Nevada jumped 24.6 percent from a year earlier, the most among the states. California's gain was next at 19.4 percent, followed by Arizona's 17.3 percent, Hawaii's 17 percent and Oregon's 15.5 percent.

More people are looking to purchase homes. But the number of homes for sale is 14 percent lower than it was a year ago. The supply shortage has contributed to the price increases.

Rising home prices can help sustain the housing recovery. They encourage more homeowners to sell. And they spur would-be homeowners to buy before prices increase further.

Home sales and prices began to recover last year, six years after the housing bust. They have been buoyed by steady job gains and low mortgage rates.

Sales of previously occupied homes ticked up to a 3 1/2 year high in April, according to the National Association of Realtors. And they are likely to keep growing: A measure of signed contracts to buy homes rose to its highest level in three years in April. There is generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed sale.

The limited supply of homes has also made builders more willing to ramp up construction. That's creating more construction jobs. Applications for building permits rose in April to the highest level in nearly five years.

Prices rose in April from the previous year in 94 out of the 100 largest U.S. cities, CoreLogic said. That's up from 88 in the previous month.

Los Angeles and Phoenix reported the biggest price gains among the cities, CoreLogic said. Prices in both cities leapt 19.2 percent compared with a year earlier.

They were followed by Atlanta and Riverside-San Bernardino, which both posted 16.5 percent gains. Dallas rounded out the top five, with a 10.2 percent increase.

Despite the large gains, home prices are more than 22 percent below their April 2006 peak, the CoreLogic survey found.

In Nevada, they are still 47.3 percent below their peak, and in Florida, prices are 40.5 percent below their peak.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/04/4084386/us-home-prices-jumped-in-april.html#storylink=cp
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Charlotte home prices up in April | CharlotteObserver.com

Charlotte home prices up in April | CharlotteObserver.com

Home prices in the Charlotte region rose in April from the same month a year ago, forcing buyers to dig deeper into their pockets in a housing market that’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Prices of existing homes in Charlotte, Gastonia and Rock Hill jumped 9.2 percent when distressed-property sales were factored in, Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic said Tuesday. But the increase was below the 12.1 percent gain nationally.

Nationwide, April’s price increase was the biggest year-over-year gain since February 2006. Only Alabama and Mississippi posted decreases in prices in April from a year ago.

April marked the 14th consecutive month of year-over-year home price increases in the Charlotte area and nationally, CoreLogic data show.

In Charlotte and elsewhere, the housing market is increasingly favoring sellers.

Especially since the start of 2013, Charlotte’s real estate industry has seen increased strengthening in the existing-home market. Brokers and other professionals are reporting shrinking inventory and growing instances of prospective buyers making multiple offers on homes, particularly in south Charlotte. In some cases, industry officials say, homes are receiving offers as soon as they are listed, and appraisers are sometimes having trouble finding comparable sales.

“We’re seeing a fair amount of houses sold at list price, some over,” said Philip Mahoney, an officer with the Mortgage Bankers Association of the Carolinas.

The Ballantyne, Eastover and Myers Park neighborhoods in Charlotte, and Rock Hill and Fort Mill, S.C., are among hot areas for rising prices and multiple offers, he said.

According to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association, the inventory of existing homes for sale fell 30 percent, to 14,053, in Greater Charlotte in April compared with the same month last year. The average number of days a home sat on the market until it sold decreased to 101 this past April from 116 in April 2012, the association reported.

Peter Gallo, owner of Charlotte-based HomeSight Appraisal, said the uptick in multiple offers for Charlotte-area homes seems to have started one to two months ago.

He said he expects the supply of homes for sale to only get smaller.

That could further increase prices.

“When you hear news stories that MetLife’s coming into south Charlotte ... and that’s potentially 1,500 people looking for houses in south Charlotte, the inventory isn’t that strong,” he said.

According to CoreLogic, when distressed sales were excluded, Charlotte-area home prices increased 12.9 percent this past April from April 2012. Nationally, prices increased 11.9 percent in the same period when distressed sales were excluded.

CoreLogic’s report comes after last week’s release of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, which showed Charlotte-area home prices rose 7 percent in March from the same month last year.

Even though Charlotte-area home prices continue to rise, Mahoney said he doesn’t see a real estate bubble forming in the area.

“We’ve had modest and acceptable increases,” he said. “I do not have much concern for a bubble.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/04/4084492/charlotte-home-prices-up-in-april.html#storylink=cpy