RealtyTrac has released its first-ever U.S. Residential Sales Report, which shows that U.S. residential property sales reached an estimated annualized pace of 5.3 million in June 2013, up two percent from the previous month and up eight percent from a year ago. The report also shows a national median sales price of $168,000 for the month, up three percent from the previous month and up five percent from a year ago. The median price of a distressed sale—in foreclosure or bank owned—was $120,000, 34 percent below the median price of a non-distressed sale ($181,500).
“The U.S. housing market is slowly but surely moving toward a more normalized and sustainable pattern after a flurry of institutional and cash buyers flocked to residential real estate last year, pushing up prices and picking clean the best inventory available in many areas,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Rising home values should continue to unlock more non-distressed inventory while also pricing institutional investors out of more markets, which, combined with rising interest rates, will cool off the pace of price appreciation."
Other findings from the report:
►All-cash purchases accounted for 30 percent of all sales in June, down from 31 percent of all sales in the previous month and a year ago. Metro areas with higher percentages of cash sales included Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. (70 percent); Miami (64 percent); Las Vegas (62 percent); Sarasota, Fla. (59 percent); Tampa, Fla. (58 percent); and Detroit (56 percent).
►Institutional investor purchases (sales to non-lending entities that purchased at least 10 properties in the last 12 months) accounted for nine percent of all residential sales in June, up from 8 percent of all sales in May but down from 10 percent of all sales in June 2012. States with the highest percentage of institutional investor sales included Georgia (23 percent), Nevada (16 percent), Arizona (15 percent), Oklahoma (13 percent), North Carolina (12 percent), and Florida (12 percent).
►Sales of bank-owned properties (REO) accounted for nine percent of all residential sales in June, down from 10 percent in May 2013 and on par with a year ago. Metro areas where REO sales accounted for higher percentages of total sales included Detroit (24 percent); Modesto, Calif. (24 percent); Stockton, Calif. (24 percent); Las Vegas (22 percent); and Akron, Ohio (21 percent).
►Short sales (where the sale price is below the combined total of outstanding mortgages secured by the property) accounted for 14 percent of all residential sales in June, down from 15 percent in May but up from 8 percent a year ago. States with the highest percentage of short sales in June included Nevada (30 percent), Florida (29 percent), Maryland (21 percent), Tennessee (19 percent), and Arizona (19 percent).
►Metro areas with annual increases in median prices of 20 percent or more included Sacramento, Calif. (35 percent), San Francisco (30 percent), Los Angeles (27 percent), Las Vegas (26 percent), and Phoenix (25 percent).
►States with the biggest distressed sale discount included Ohio (58 percent), Michigan (48 percent), Illinois (47 percent), Massachusetts (46 percent), and Wisconsin (45 percent).
“Still, lingering distressed inventory in many markets will continue to provide fodder for institutional investors and cash buyers in those markets,” Blomquist said. “Markets where sales increased in June tend to be in states with that lingering distressed inventory, whereas markets where sales decreased tend to be in states that more quickly absorbed distressed inventory thanks to a relatively fast foreclosure process and strong demand.”
