Half full or half empty? It depends on your perspective,\ralthough an engineer friend says it\u2019s not the volume of liquid but the size of\rthe glass that matters. <\/p>
\r\rEconomics is often a half-empty, half-full endeavor.\rConsider April\u2019s existing home sales numbers from the National Association of\rRealtors (NAR): Economists expected a 2% increase over levels of a year ago,\rbut the real number was disappointingly lower than that.<\/p>
\r\rNAR reported April existing-home sales of 4.65 million, a\rmodest 1.3% increase over March\u2019s unrevised 4.59 million sales. Economists\rexpected 4.69 million sales. <\/p>
\r\rAnd while industry watchers expressed what Metrostudy (a\rsubsidiary of Hanley Wood, the company that publishes ProSales) chief economist\rJonathan Smoke calls \u201cmisdirected hand-wringing over the alleged stall of the\r2014 housing rebound,\u201d a closer look at those sales provides a glimmer of hope.<\/p>
\r\rThat\u2019s because the total volume of home sales month-to-month\risn\u2019t nearly as important as what\u2019s being sold and who\u2019s buying. The sign of\rcontinued market health is the increase in non-distressed transactions, meaning\rmore consumers\u2014not investors\u2014are reaching for their wallets. Additionally,\rprices remain firm against continued demand with a limited supply of homes\ravailable on the market.<\/p>
\r\rA deeper look at home sales from Metrostudy\u2019s deed-level\rdata across the country shows that real estate owned (REO) sales among existing\rhome sales decreased 23.5% in April. Foreclosures dropped 35.7%. <\/p>
\r\rMeanwhile, the portion of regular resale\u2014considered\rnon-distressed sales\u2014grew 13%. Comparing April 2014 with April 2013, the REO\rshare fell 19% while the foreclosure share again declined from 14% to 9%. The\rregular resale share rose 11.5%.<\/p>
\r\rInvestor activity also continues to decline, falling almost\r10% in April from the first quarter. This is a good thing. \u201cInvestors drove up\rpricing last year, and investors don\u2019t create the same economic impact in home\rimprovement that regular buyers do,\u201d Smoke says. Pricing is also a key lagging\rindicator reflecting improving, not deteriorating conditions, according to\rSmoke. NAR says that the median existing home price in April was $201,700, up\r5.2% over last year. <\/p>
\r\rIn my conversations with dealers, you all seem\rpretty upbeat about the remainder of this year. At 2014\u2019s halfway mark, it\u2019s\ranybody\u2019s guess whether housing demand limps to the finish line or takes off\rwith a roar. Regardless, here\u2019s hoping your glass overflows. Cheers.
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Half full or half empty? It depends on your perspective, although an engineer friend says it\u2019s not the volume of liquid but the size of the glass that matters. Economics is often a half-empty, half-full endeavor. Consider April\u2019s existing home sales numbers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR): Economists expected a 2% increase over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"scheduledNewsletterDates":[],"_scheduled_newsletter_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"zonda_content_type_url_append":"_o","zonda_dfp_zone":"","zonda_exclude_recommended_contents":false,"zonda_exclude_most_popular":false,"zonda_exclude_tagged_results":false,"zonda_eyebrow":"EDITOR'S NOTES","zonda_last_newsletter_date":"2099-12-31T23:59:59.999-05:00","zonda_original_url":"","zonda_pdf_version":0,"zonda_print_headline":"","zonda_promo_abstract":"","zonda_promo_headline":"","zonda_promo_image":0,"zonda_subheadline":"The economy's strength sometimes is a matter of perspective"},"tags":[],"news_item_type":[],"section_9":[11539],"subject":[72,109],"organization":[],"award":[],"person":[],"product_type_9":[],"content-group":[],"event":[],"location":[],"state":[],"brand":[],"jlc-category":[],"year_tax":[],"sponsor":[],"coauthors":[83060],"class_list":["post-13090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","section_9-news","subject-economic-conditions","subject-housing-data"],"yoast_head":"\n