Interior prices down and unsold listings way up
The heavy news in the April surviving home price report let go of today by the Home Association of Realtors wasn’t the 8% come by median home prices or the best-than-required 1% decline in sales.
It was the eye-croping up 10.5% jump in the inventory of unsold homes. The number of homes uncommitted for sale jumped to 4.55 million at the end of April, standing for an 11.2-month supply at the current sales pace. There was a 10-month supply of homes at the end of March.
“The increase in inventories is a tough sign for the next several months,” Bill Hampel, Primary Economist for the Credit Union Interior Association and Affiliates, said after the data was published. “It implies we’re not out of woods notwithstanding.”
There’s no shortage of uncollectible signs. On May 22, the nearly-looked on Office of Union Housing Enterprise Oversight’s home price index branded a 3.1% decline in home prices for the first quarter compared to a year ago – the magnanimousest drop in the index’s 17-year history.
The drop was important because, unlike other measures, the OFHEO purchase-only house price index tracks adapting loans of no more than $417,000, which are possessed or backed by Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac. What it doesn’t let in are homes financed with the wild subprime loans and jumbo mortgages (for more expensive home purchases).
“If the OFHEO index is depicting weakness — and it is the least probable to depict a home price decline — and so there is good down pressure on prices,” Hampel ordered.
