Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The Housing Market Settling Down

We had a hiccup in the housing market last year: After home sales peaked in July 2013, they began to slow down as mortgage rates began to rise. But now we seem to be past that: July sales were up 2.4 percent from the June rate, meaning they were the highest in 10 months.

One positive side note on that growth is that there are fewer distressed and foreclosed homes making up the market. Distressed sales made up just 9 percent of all home sales in July, the lowest that figure has been since the National Association of Realtors began compiling those numbers back in October 2008.

Interestingly enough, home sizes seem to have peaked as well. In the third quarter of 2013, the median new home in the U.S. was 2,491 square feet, the highest on record. But in each of the last two quarters, median home size has been exactly the same, at 2,478 square feet.

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