REAL Trends Housing Market Report – May 2012

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Good news! The REAL Trends Housing Market Report showed that the combination of new and existing home sales in May 2012 continued to strengthen from the prior year. The annualized rate of the combination of new and existing home sales increased to 5.197 million up from the 4.860 million recorded in May 2011.

The average price of homes sold in May 2012 was up 4.4 percent from the average price of homes sold in May 2011 marking the best price results on home sales in the last nine months. This is the best price performance in home sales in six years.

Housing unit sales for May 2012 were up 20.1 percent in the Midwest, the strongest showing in the country for the fourth consecutive month. The next highest region was the Northeast where unit sales were up 15.6 percent, the South increased by 13.8 percent and the West region saw an increase of 11.9 percent for the same period.

The average prices of homes sold in May 2012 increased 4.4 percent across the country. The West had the best results with the average price of homes sold increasing 7.9 percent followed by the Midwest region at 5.8 percent. The Northeast lagged with the average price of homes sold dropping 0.9 percent from a year ago.

“The results for May show that the housing market recovery is charging ahead with units up in the double digit range while prices were up from a year ago for the second month in a row. The market is being charged by the strong presence of investors and first time home buyers but far more
move-up buyers are appearing. The shortage of inventory, critical in many markets, is also starting to drive prices upward.” said Steve Murray, editor of the REAL Trends Housing Market Report. “Unit sales in every region were up strongly in the month over the same period a year ago. Prices are showing surprising strength as well. Overall the volume of homes sold was up strongly as well as the combination of increased units and pricing drove volume up 19.9 percent over a year ago. The housing market has now experienced nine consecutive months of increased unit sales and two months of increasing prices. It would appear the worst is over for now.”

We expect to see more of this kind of market, with increased unit sales and strengthening prices for several more months. The only cloud is the apparent slowing of the general economy, softer job creation and fears of recession in global markets.” Murray added. “The other looming challenge is that we may see a slowdown due to the lack of inventory – which would be a first in the history of the American housing market.”

REAL Trends Housing Market Report

May 2012 April 2012

(Versus same month a year ago)

Closed Sales AVG Price Closed Sales AVG Price

National
+14.8% +4.4% +11.2% +3.6%

Regional Report

Northeast
+15.6% -0.9% +12.1% -2.7%

South
+13.8% +5.3% +12.4% +7.7%

Midwest
+20.1% +5.8% +20.0% +2.9%

West
+11.9% +7.9% +3.0% +7.2%

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