Five years after the 2008 housing crash, the signs of a turnaround are hard to ignore. Nationally, home prices have been on the uptick for eight straight months and jumped 6.3% year-over-year in October – the largest increase since June 2006. The local market really started to gain momentum last fall as well. We are seeing fewer distressed sales and inventory has shrunk to a more balanced market. Here is a quarterly review of 2012:
- QI: After a dreary 2011, the market showed signs of recovery in the first quarter with single family home sales rising 22% from last year, the highest since 2007. Distressed sales made up 34% of all sales which put downward pressure on prices, without distressed sales median prices were up 24%. The Multifamily sector saw a 13% increase in sales and a 4% drop in median price, from $120,000 to $115,000. 55% of all multi-family sales involved distressed properties, Condominium sales rose by almost 4% while median price fell 21%. Distressed sales increased 51% and accounted for 35 % of all condo sales in the first quarter.
- QII-The market improved consistently in the second quarter, with single family home sales up 18% compared to 2011. Though the median price remained down 6% from the prior year, prices rose each month from February and topped the $200,000 mark in June for the first time since August, 2011. Distressed sales also fell throughout the quarter, accounting for one in three sales in April to less than one in four in June. The market showed significant improvement from the first quarter as well, which reflected that 34% of all sales were sold through foreclosure or short sale. Investors saw the bottom and got great deals on multi-family properties. As the number of distressed properties declined, values began to rises. The enhanced affordability of home prices coupled with the low interest rates ever, created great opportunities for buyers of all property types
- QIII- Single family homes sales rose 15% in the third quarter, and the median price, while down 3% from 2011, had begun to stabilize and distressed sales dropped to 23% from 25%. 17 cities and towns saw increases in median price and 10 towns saw increases in both sales and price. Multi-family unit sales also increased 6% in the third quarter, while median price declined nearly 4%. Distressed sales decreased to 47% of total sales, down from 54 % in of 2011. Condominium sales held relatively stable, increasing just .95%, and median sales price decreased 6%. Distressed sales fell to 20% of total sales from 21 % in 2011. While Elections can often create uncertainty in the market, sales did not slow down, September marked the 15th consecutive month of increased sales, a strong number of arm's length sales to help support appraisals as inventory continued to decrease.
- QIV- Despite being hampered by Hurricane Sandy, the market continued to rally in the fourth quarter of 2012, with an increase in both median price and sales. The median house price increased 5% and sales increased by 25 %. 24% of the sales were distressed down from 27 % in 2011. Condo sales increased 27.2 % while the median sale price rose 24.03%. Multifamily home sales dropped 3%, but the median home sales price rose 10% percent to $120,000 year over year. The number of distressed sales fell 21% among condos and 26 % in multifamily homes.
