October | 2013 | Cal Title News

Home sales surge in September

October 15, 2013 – The REAL Trends Housing Market Report for October 2013 shows that the rate of housing sales increased strongly in September 2013 growing 20.9 percent from September 2012, a continuation of the powerful surge in housing sales that started in October 2011. The annual rate of new and existing home sales for September 2013 was 6.228 million up from 5.153 million recorded in September 2012 but down slightly from the rate in August 2013.

The average price of homes sold increased by 5.5 percent in September 2013 compared to September 2012. Housing unit sales for September 2013 were up 24.4 percent in the Midwest, the strongest showing in the country. The next highest region was in the South region at 23.3 percent, the Northeast region was up 21.5 percent and the West was up 14.2 percent. The average price of homes sold in September 2013 increased 5.5 percent across the country, down measurably from the results in August 2013. The West had the best results with the average price of homes sold increasing 10.2 percent followed by the South region at 7.3 percent and the Midwest at 7.0 percent. The Northeast region saw prices move downward by 0.3 percent.

“September 2013 sales of new and existing homes were surprisingly strong, especially in view of the rise of mortgage rates over the past few months,” said Steve Murray, editor of the REAL Trends Housing Market Report. “Historically when a recovery starts to drive rates up buyers increase their buying activity to beat the rise in rates and we saw that in the July 2013 results. September results showed a small decrease in the annualized rate of homes sales from the prior month which was also expected. Inventories continue to constrain sales as well and although homes available for sale have increased they remain below historical levels of balanced housing markets.”