Jason Bernabei, TriCastle Realty
DEL MAR, June 25, 2012 -- Gooooooooddd Monday morning San Diego!!! Happy first day of summer in the Land of Endless Summer! Ha! Hey, as I suspect that most of you already know, summertime is traditionally the peak home-buying period in the U.S. An examination of recently made available industry data on the preceding months leading up to this summer affords us crystal-ball types a cloudy forecast, despite this timely heat today in Del Mar.
First, the
news on Sales! Sales! Sales! From
April to May, a 26,000 increase in sales of new single-family homes in the U.S.
is a telltale sign of an approaching summertime buying season! New
single family homes sales data came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
369,000 in May, up from a rate of
343,000 in April, as per the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development. The month-over-month increase from the
April number was at 7.6% and May's figure was 19.8% higher than the new home
sales projection of 308,000 (May 2011). This is GOOD NEWS for Housing.
More good news that makes the case
that the industry is headed in the right direction came recently via data made
available on median price of newly constructed single family homes. The median price was (drum roll please) $234,500 and the average was $273,900 in May 2012. One year ago, the
median came in at $222,000 and the
average price was $262,700.
Now, when we break the data down region by region across the U.S., we find that the crystal ball becomes blurry. Sales in the Northeast region came in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 41,000, which is a 36.7% increase from April, up 127.8% from a year ago. In the Midwest, sales slid 10.6% to 42,000,
a representative increase of 2.4% comparative May 2011. Sales in the
South were up 12.7% to a 204,000 unit rate, a 16.6% year-over-year change,
while out here in the Wild Wild West there were 82,000 sales, down 3.5%
month-over-month, yet up 10.8% on an annual basis, and up 127.8% from a year ago. 
Some other noteworthy data courtesy Mortgage Daily News: At the end of May there were an estimated 145,000 new
homes for sale, representative a supply of 4.7 months at the current sales rate. One year earlier there were 169,000 homes available, representative
of a 6.6 month supply. The average house for sale has been on the market for 7.9 months since construction was completed. (I had to do a double take at that one to make sure they weren’t talking about the average length of the short sale process).
In
any event, enjoy summertime in America’s Finest City, as it is here at last! And until
next time San Diego, you can contact me, Jason Brnabei, at jasonb@tricastle.com and check
me out each and every Monday on www.therealtyinsiders.com for more, and be sure
to tune in and see myself, and other local industry professionals talking all things real
estate and Housing on "The Realty Insiders," the ONLY real estate show in town!
Jay’s
outlook: SUNNY!
Jason Bernabei, TriCastle Realty
