Housing on Mend, Recovery Still Far Off

WALL STREET JOURNAL – NICK TIMIRAOS

Home prices during the first half of 2012 posted their strongest gains in six years, the clearest sign that more U.S. housing markets have hit bottom.

 

Home prices during the first half of 2012 posted their strongest gains in six years, the clearest sign that more U.S. housing markets have hit bottom. But don’t confuse that with a full-on recovery. WSJ’s Nick Timiraos reports. Photo: Getty Images.

 

But the housing market remains far from normal. Hitting a bottom shouldn’t be confused with a full-on recovery, which looks a ways off.

 

 

 

 

Today’s rising prices have less to do with surging demand-though hard-hit markets in Arizona, California, and Florida have seen significant investor appetite for distressed homes-than with declines in the number of properties for sale.

Inventories of “existing” homes-that is, ones that haven’t just been built-are at eight-year lows. New-home inventories are lower than at any time since the U.S. census began tracking them in 1963. In some cities, there are one-third fewer homes listed for sale than a year ago.

 

Here’s why prices are rising: There are more buyers chasing fewer homes, and-critically-fewer distressed homes, such as foreclosures. Low inventory is one sign that housing markets may have reached a turning point because many want to buy at the bottom but few want to sell.

 

There are several factors behind the low inventory. Banks have slowed their pace of foreclosures. Investors have snapped up discounted properties that they can convert into rentals. Home builders, struggling for several years to compete on price with foreclosed properties, have added little in the way of new supply.

 

For now, price gains are concentrated at the low end of the market, where inventory declines have been most dramatic. “The market is really drying up in these seemingly distressed markets really quickly,” said Michael Sklarz, president of research firm Collateral Analytics. “They really are scratching for properties to sell.”

 

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