US home prices increase 5.9% YoY in April

Bloomberg

U.S. home prices rose 5.9 percent in April from a year earlier as job growth spurred competition for a limited number of listings.
Prices climbed 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from March, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in a report on from Washington. The average estimate of 20 economists was for a 0.6 percent gain, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Values have increased steadily as buyers, bolstered by an improving labor market and easing mortgage standards, battle for a tight supply of homes on the market. Inventory at the end of April was down 3.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“There are still more buyers than sellers out there, and that will tend to push prices up,” Matthew Pointon, U.S. economist for Capital Economics Ltd., said in an interview. “The job market is coming back, mortgage underwriting is gradually loosening and there’s still not much supply.”
Pointon called the less-than-estimated monthly increase in the FHFA index a “soft patch” that isn’t likely to last. “Fundamentals are still there for prices to be rising,” he said.
Prices rose from a year earlier in all regions, led by the Pacific — including California, Washington and Oregon — with an 8.6 percent gain. The Middle Atlantic — New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — had the smallest increase, 1.7 percent.
The FHFA index measures transactions for single-family properties financed with mortgages owned or securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It doesn’t provide specific prices. The national median price of an existing single-family home was $233,700 in April, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Realtors group.

Sales of Existing Homes Rise to Highest Since 2007
Sales of previously owned homes climbed in May to the highest level in more than nine years, indicating that demand for residential real estate remains robust, National Association of Realtors data showed Wednesday.

Key Points
Contract closings climbed 1.8 percent to a 5.53 million annual rate (forecast was 5.55 million), the fastest pace since February 2007 Sales increased 6.3 percent from May 2015 before seasonal adjustment Median price of an existing home rose 4.7 percent from May 2015 to a record $239,700 Inventory of available properties decreased 5.7 percent from May 2015 to 2.15 million units

Big Picture
Housing demand is showing signs of improving from 2015 when 5.25 million homes were sold, the best year for Realtors since before the last recession. A firm labor market, steadily rising wages and low interest rates are combining to give residential real estate some room to run. More supply of new and existing homes that helps moderate price growth would help make housing more affordable for first-time buyers and provide an added spark for the market and the economy.

Economist Takeaways
“The housing market is clearly moving in the right direction, and it’s going to contribute more to economic growth going forward,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Still, “Inventories are very lean. That’s going to come at the expense of future sales.” “Whatever is coming onto the market, it is picking up buyers very fast,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors in Washington, said to reporters as the data were released. “There’s a lot of yellow lights flashing to say watch out for affordability.”

The Details
Sales increased most in the West, where contract closings climbed 5.4 percent to a 1.18 million pace from a month earlier At the current pace, it would take 4.7 months to sell inventory of homes, matching April. Less than a five months’ supply is a tight market, the Realtors group has said Properties were on the market for 32 days in May, down from 40 days at the same time a year ago and the shortest since the NAR began tracking figures in 2011 Single-family home sales increased 1.9 percent to an annual rate of 4.9 million while purchases of multifamily properties increased 1.6 percent to a 630,000 pace First-time buyers accounted for 30 percent of all sales, down from 32 percent in April.