Real estate analysts have been saying it and now the numbers confirm it. The housing bust is over, reports The Wall Street Journal, as more homes are now being sold and house prices are trending up.
“You know when The Wall Street Journal says it, it’s true,” said The Agency’s Billy Rose. “Now is the time to buy — while interest rates are low and before prices start increasing.”
In May 2012, nearly 10% more existing homes were sold than in the same month a year earlier, with smart investors, from both the U.S. and abroad, driving a significant number of purchases. Further, according to S&P’s David Blitzer, the slow-moving S&P/Case-Shiller house-price data has seen its first monthly increase after seven months of declines. “We finally saw some rising home prices,” confirmed Blitzer.
Additional proof that housing has finally turned the corner is that new construction is on the rise. Builders have begun work on 26% more single-family homes in May 2012 than in May 2011. The number of unsold newly built homes is now back to 2005 levels, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Also significant is that the inventory of existing homes for sale has fallen while the number of homes that are vacant is at its lowest level since 2006. Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, tells The Wall Street Journal that the reduced inventory of unsold homes is key because it is now less likely that housing prices will slump this year, but instead, will rise as demand increases.
For more on the end of the housing bust read the full WSJ article here.
View The Agency’s ‘Recently Sold’ homes, like 9577 Sunset (above), here.