Wall Street History

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Wall Street History

10/30/2015

Housing Update

Time for my quarterly update of the housing situation in the United States, using the existing home price barometer as published each month by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). 

As you are well aware, home prices rise in the spring as activity picks up after the doldrums of the fall and winter so I thought we’d look at the trends for the past two quarters…using the national median home price.  It’s going to be interesting to see how much further we decline off the spring highs.

2015

April...$218,700
May....$228,900
June....$236,300
July.....$231,800
Aug....$228,700
Sept....$221,900 [preliminary] 

2014 

April...$201,500
May....$212,000
June....$222,000
July.....$221,600
Aug....$218,400
Sept....$209,100 

2013

April...$191,800
May....$203,100
June....$214,000
July.....$212,400
Aug....$209,700
Sept....$198,500

2012

April…$173,700
May….$180,300
June….$188,800
July…..$187,800
Aug….$184,900
Sept....$178,300

2011

April…$161,100
May….$169,300
June….$184,300
July…..$171,200
Aug….$171,200 
Sept….$165,300

2010

April…$172,300
May….$174,600
June….$182,900
July…..$182,100
Aug….$177,300
Sept….$171,400

2009

April…$166,500
May….$174,800
June….$181,800
July…..$181,300
Aug….$177,200
Sept….$175,900

Using the NAR’s data, the median average for a full year was as follows.

2004…$185,200
2005…$219,600
2006…$221,900*
2007…$219,000
2008…$198,100
2009…$172,500
2010…$172,900
2011…$166,100
2012....$176,800
2013....$197,100
2014....$208,300

*Existing home prices peaked in July 2006 at $230,200… according to NAR. You can play around with the numbers but generally you’re talking there was then a ‘formal’ decline of 30%, peak to trough, nationally.

But this spring we hit a new high of $236,300 in June 2015...a new (non-inflation adjusted) high.

Source: realtor.org

Wall Street History will return in two weeks.

Brian Trumbore

 

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