On October 28th, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales declined in September for the fourth consecutive month. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR, noted in the release that September’s figure represented the first time in 29 months that pending home sales weren’t above the figure from one year prior. A link to the NAR news release is found here: Pending Home Sales Continue Slide in September
Last week, the CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index for the 2nd Quarter reported that nationally home prices were 16% above the 4th Quarter of 2011 but still 24% below the 1st Quarter 2006 peak. Price appreciation is projected to slow, however, to 5.4% by early 2014. A link to their news release, including regional breakdowns, is found here: CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes Reveal Continued Price Recovery in Nearly 90 Percent of U.S. Metros During Second Quarter of 2013
On October 31st, CoreLogic reported that 51,000 foreclosures were completed in September, down from 84,000 in September of 2012. CoreLogic also reported that foreclosure inventory was down by 33% from one year earlier. The five states with the highest number of completed foreclosures were Florida, California, Texas, Michigan and Georgia. Regarding foreclosure inventory, the five states with the highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes were Florida (7.4%), New Jersey (6.5%), New York (4.8%), Maine (4.0%) and Connecticut (3.7%).