Tag Archives: cookies
US home sales up to highest rate for 18 months, latest data shows
Existing home sales in the United States jumped in March to their highest annual rate in 18 months, while unsold inventory showed needed improvement, according to the latest index. Data from the National Association of Realtors shows that this growth was led by the Midwest, but all major regions experienced strong sales gains in March and are above their year on year sales pace. Total existing home sales, which are completed transactions that include single family homes, town homes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 6.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million in March from 4.89 million in February, the highest annual rate since September 2013. Sales have increased year on year for six consecutive months and are now 10.4% above a year ago, the highest annual increase since August 2013. March's sales increase was the largest monthly increase since December 2010. According to Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, the housing market appears to be off to an encouraging start this spring. ‘After a quiet start to the year, sales activity picked up greatly throughout the country in March,’ he said. ‘The combination of low interest rates and the ongoing stability in the job market is improving buyer confidence and finally releasing some of the sizable pent-up demand that accumulated in recent years,’ he explained. Prices are also climbing steadily. The median existing home price for all housing types in March was $212,100, which is 7.8% above March 2014. This marks the 37th consecutive month of year on year price gains and the largest since February 2014 when it was 8.8%. ‘For sales to build upon their current pace, home owners will increasingly need to be confident in their ability to sell their home while having enough time and choices to upgrade or downsize. More listings and new home construction are still needed to tame price growth and provide more opportunity for first-time buyers to enter the market,’ said Yun. The percent share of first time buyers was 30% in March, marking the third time since last March that the first time buyer share was at or above 30%. First time buyers represented 29% of all buyers last month compared to 30% in March 2014. All cash sales were 24% of transactions in March, down from 26% in February and down considerably from a year ago when they were 33%. Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 14% of homes in March, unchanged from last month and down from 17% in March 2014. Some 70% of investors paid cash in March. Distressed sales, that is foreclosures and short sales, amounted to 10% of sales in March, down from 11% in February and 14% a year ago. Some 7% of March sales were foreclosures and 3% were short sales. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 16% below market value in March, similar to the 17% recorded in in February while short sales were also discounted 16%, up from 15% in February. Properties… Continue reading
UK gross mortgage lending showing signs of picking up
Mortgage lending in the UK is still down on a quarterly basis on what it was a year ago but there are signs of a pickup, according to the latest figures to be published. Estimates from the Council of Mortgage Lenders shows that gross mortgage lending reached £16.5 billion in March, some 21% higher than February but lending for the first quarter is 12% down on the final quarter of 2014 and 3% down on the first quarter of 2014. However it is up month on month for the month of March, some 7% higher than March of 2014 and CML chief economist Bob Pannell said that the underlying lending picture is stabilising. ‘Sentiment and activity are showing early signs of improvement, and should be further supported by the effects of stamp duty reform. We expect to see lending strengthen over the next few months, albeit from a relatively sluggish start in 2015,’ he said. But buy to let lending is stronger. Data from the Bank of England shows that gross lending for buy to let purposes was £27.4 billion in 2014 and over the past five years the share of total buy to let lending in overall mortgage lending picked up to 15% in the fourth quarter of 2014 Q4, higher than in the pre-crisis period. The Bank’s network of Agents noted that the rental market had continued to grow strongly in recent months, supporting continued steady growth in buy to let activity and gross buy to let lending has grown faster than overall gross mortgage lending in recent years. Gross buy to let advances for remortgaging have also increased in recent years. As a share of the total it grew from 32% in 2002 to 52% in 2014, with the share of gross advances for house purchase at 45%. According to David Whittaker, managing director of Mortgages for Business, buy to let is not subject to the nerves and jitters of this spring’s home owner mortgage market. ‘Election uncertainty might be putting some people off buying a home, but in the meantime millions of tenants still need somewhere to live and landlords are investing in new properties, as buy to let mortgage rates reach new lows,’ he said. ‘Underpinning this, rents are picking up on the back of a strengthening jobs market, supporting yields while steady price growth is still providing an additional bonus of capital growth to many landlords,’ he explained. However he pointed out that there are uncertainties on the horizon. ‘The latest noises from the Bank of England indicate how the powers that be seem as unsure about the future path of interest rates as the man on the street. However, when rates do rise, or if the economic recovery does slow, landlords will be in a better position to stand up to headwinds than a year ago as their tenants’ financial health improves,’ he added. In general the mortgage lending market is improving, according to… Continue reading
Rents in England and Wales close to record high, latest index shows
Rents in England and Wales are now £768 per month with average annual rent rises growing at their fastest pace in two years, up 3.7% over the last 12 months. The last time rents rose so quickly was in the year to April 2013, when this previously stood at 3.9% per annum, according to the latest buy to let index from Your Move and Reeds Rains. Between February and March rents have risen by 0.3% on a monthly basis and are now just £2 away from the all-time record high of £770 per month, set in October 2014, the data also shows. ‘Since 2010 the private rented sector has absorbed over a million extra households. With social housing in decline, alongside a parallel decay in the number of people owning their own home with a mortgage, private renting has stood in to fill the gap,’ said Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Reeds Rains and Your Move. ‘With only small real terms rent rises, this has generally been a success and tenants are now half as likely to fall behind on rent as at the peak of the financial crisis. However, this sector is carrying the weight of the housing crisis and that will mean faster rent rises in future if supply doesn’t keep up,’ he pointed out. ‘Without more homes every year to match a rising population, housing will inevitably become more expensive. And with one in five households now renting privately, this section of the population won’t be an exception to those fundamentals. Britain needs more homes, and over the long term, investment by landlords will only provide places to live as quickly as those homes are given planning permission and completed,’ he added. A breakdown of the figures shows that rents in the East of England stand out with 12.0% annual growth. The average property to let in the East of England region is now considerably more expensive than the South East. London is second in terms of annual rent rises with rents in the capital 5% higher than in March 2014, while Yorkshire and the Humber has seen rent rises of 3.3% over the last 12 months. At the other end of the spectrum, rents in the East Midlands are now 0.2% lower than a year ago, while the South West has seen no annual change. Most recently, rents have also risen the fastest month on month in the East of England, up 2.5% just since February 2015. However on a monthly basis the North West is not far behind, with rents up 2.3% over the last month, while this is followed by Yorkshire and the Humber with rent rises of 0.4% since February. By contrast, rents in the East Midlands have dropped by 0.6% between February and March, while the North East and Wales both saw rents 0.5% lower in… Continue reading
