Realtor.com® Report: 2014 Property Starts Strong

The polar vortex is proving to become no sweat for home buyers, based on the latest National Housing Trend Report from realtor.com®.

Despite severe winter weather conditions nationwide, the 2014 property season got on a good start with a year-over-year increase in inventory and sustained rise in home prices.

The median list price for January rose 8.3 % compared to the same time a year ago, according to the realtor.com® data. How many properties available was up 3.1 percent. Plus the median era of inventory was essentially unchanged, indicating a transition to your “less frenzied market” compared to January 2013.

The solid start “is surely an encouraging sign of sellers’ interest, particularly given the adverse conditions a result of the polar vortex,” said Errol Samuelson, president of realtor.com®. “We saw the tight-supply market of last fall carry the whole way into November — later than is usually expected — this also early surge in inventory is often a welcome trend.”

Looking ahead, the nation's median existing home cost is projected to elevate about 5 percent to 6 percent in 2014, based on the Nar®, which cites job growth and enormous, pent-up demand as drivers in the market learn how to of rising mortgage rates.

The California, Detroit and Nevada markets keep top their email list of areas while using largest year-over-year increases in median list prices, boasting increases of 20 percent and up.

Though the polar vortex took a toll in certain elements of the united states. Strong markets hit hard by the winter season — such as Boston, Chicago and Detroit — saw as much as ten percent month-over-month declines in inventory. Once winter months subsides, however, these markets may go through a powerful recovery, realtor.com® analysts said.

National Perspective

Inventory increasing: In the national level, for-sale inventories have become 3.1 percent above they were recently, and also the boost in inventory is spreading to more markets nationally. In January 2013, just eight markets from the 146 registered increases in inventory. This January, 83 with the 143 markets tracked by realtor.com (58 percent) showed increases in inventory, year over year. As the next several months are going to be critical to observe, these trends suggest a far more balanced housing sector entering the 2014 real estate property season.

Price increases more widespread: Median list price rose a proper 8.3 percent in January 2014 when compared to same time not too long ago. In January 2014, 44 markets saw year-over-year list price increases of 10 percent or higher, in comparison to January 2013, when 24 markets registered double-digit increases in median list price. The amount of declining markets in terms of median list price dropped from 58 in January 2013 to merely 13 in January 2014.

Days on market stabilizing: Median ages of inventory remained steady in January 2014 when compared to the same time this past year, at 115 days. However, the number of markets showing year-over-year declines in inventory has dropped significantly, from 133 markets in January 2013 to 78 markets in January 2014. Meanwhile, 56 markets showed year-over-year increases in inventory in January 2014, as compared to just nine markets in January 2013.

Local Market Highlights

California, Detroit and Nevada markets keep dominate the list of areas experiencing the largest year-over-year increases in median list prices, with increases of 20 % or more.

Coming into the spring months, you have to watch for markets which has a possible resurgence, for example Denver, Boulder, Chicago and Corpus Christi, TX, where depressed inventories are actually along with large year-over-year gains in median list prices. Sustained low inventories of these markets could to lead to demand-driven housing price increases that characterized California and quite a few in the sand states in 2013.

Strong markets particularly worth noting as those worst hit by climate-driven troubles include Boston having a 10.9 percent month-over-month inventory decline, Chicago using a 6.1 percent inventory drop, Denver having a striking 13.5 percent inventory decline, Detroit having a 6.8 percent reduction, Ny with a 9.5 percent decline, and Philadelphia through an 8.2 percent decline. These markets can experience notable inventory recovery after prohibitive climate conditions subside.

Realtor.com® regularly tracks real estate data and develops monthly reports featuring the number of listings, median ages of inventory and median list price over the U.S. and specific markets, together with provides year-over-year and month-over-month changes. These reports include the only ones pulled from the realtor.com® database, where 90 % of listings are updated every fifteen minutes from over 800 MLSs. We regularly review and update historical data to be able to supply the most accurate and comprehensive market information available. For additional info on Move, check out www.move.com a treadmill of the many online real estate property properties including realtor.com®.