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Friday, April 13, 2012

Lawler: Expect NAR to report a 3% Year-over-year increase in the Median Price for March

by Calculated Risk on 4/13/2012 05:29:00 PM

Economist Tom Lawler wrote today: "Incoming data point to a YOY increase in the NAR’s Median Existing Home Sales Price of about 3% in March."

CR: Of course the median price is impacted by the mix, and the increase in the median is probably due to fewer foreclosures at the low end. Tom will probably send me a projection for March existing home sales early next week.

Tom also sent me an update to the following table for several distressed areas. For all of the areas, the share of distressed sales is down from March 2011, the share of short sales has mostly increased and the share of foreclosure sales are down - and down significantly in some areas.

Note: The table is a percentage of total sales.

Short Sales ShareForeclosure Sales ShareTotal "Distressed" Share
12-Mar11-Mar12-Mar11-Mar12-Mar11-Mar
Las Vegas26.6%23.6%40.7%47.6%67.3%71.2%
Reno34.0%30.0%32.0%41.0%66.0%71.0%
Phoenix25.7%19.1%21.1%46.2%46.7%65.3%
Sacramento29.0%22.3%30.7%48.4%59.7%70.7%
Minneapolis12.4%12.8%36.8%45.9%49.2%58.7%
Mid-Atlantic (MRIS)13.2%13.1%14.7%26.3%27.9%39.5%