Realtor.com has released its March data on the U.S. housing market, which shows growing optimism and confidence among potential sellers. Realtor.com’s March 2013 data indicates that while national housing inventory decreased 15.22 percent since last year, the number of listings increased 2.36 percent since February 2013. This month-over-month increase indicates a renewed willingness in sellers to put their homes on the market as list prices increased .05 percent both year-over-year and month-over-month to a national average list price of $190,000. The data also showed that the median age of inventory dropped to 78 days — a decrease of 20.41 percent since February.

“The newest data shows that the outlook is optimistic for the overall real estate recovery,” said Steve Berkowitz, chief executive officer of Move, Inc. “The housing market is a key indicator for the national economy, and things are slowly picking up steam. The next three months will be significant in determining the impact of the recovering housing market.”

California markets continue to show impressive recovery, and Denver, Detroit, and Seattle are three new markets showing promising growth. In March 2013, Detroit rose to Realtor.com’s 11th spot nationally in its year-over-year list price increases, ahead of hot California markets such as Stockton and San Diego and one spot below San Francisco.

California continues to lead the list of the country’s top performing housing markets with the largest year-over-year decline in for-sale inventories. Seattle is the only market outside of California in the top 10, and experienced a decline of 40.17 percent in for-sale inventories year-over-year. The 10 markets with the largest year-over-year declines in inventory are Stockton-Lodi, Sacramento, Orange County, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside-San Bernardino, and Seattle. Of the 146 markets Realtor.com monitors, only nine experienced an increase in for-sale inventory.

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San Francisco Chronicle – The lack of available homes for sale is creating a sellers’ market, and in some areas generating offers from buyers who haven’t even seen the home on which they are bidding.

Making sense of the story

• Buying homes sight unseen is a small but growing trend in some areas, fueled by the over-competitive market and burgeoning interest by international buyers – and enabled by technological advances.

• Buyers might make offers without seeing a house for several reasons: They live elsewhere or are away for business or personal reasons; they had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t visit before bids were due; they’re investors accustomed to buying just based on property characteristics; or they’re taking a scattershot approach of making lots of offers and seeing which gets accepted.

• Although some buyers are making offers without seeing the properties in person, they’re not going in completely blind. In addition to extensive photos and video tours, plenty of websites offer buyers the opportunity to learn about neighborhoods and schools and research comparable sales.

• Often, those who bid sight unseen have a chance to tour the house during escrow and can still cancel the deal. Some sales, such as courthouse auctions that are the final stage in the foreclosure process, don’t offer a chance to see properties in advance, nor is there an inspection period.

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San Francisco Chronicle – The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell in March to 59.7 from a revised reading of 68 in February.

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The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had improved in February, declined in March, and now stands at 59.7 (1985=100), down from 68 in February. The Present Situation Index decreased to 57.9 from 61.4 and the Expectations Index declined to 60.9 from 72.4 last month.

Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions declined in March, with those saying business conditions are “good” decreasing to 16 percent from 17.6 percent, and those stating business conditions are “bad” increasing to 29.3 percent from 28.2 percent. Consumers’ assessment of the labor market was mixed. Those claiming jobs are “plentiful” decreased to 9.4 percent from 10.1 percent, but those claiming jobs are “hard to get” edged down to 36.2 percent from 36.9 percent.

Consumers are once again pessimistic about the short-term outlook. Those expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months decreased to 14.4 percent from 18.0 percent, while those anticipating business conditions to worsen increased to 18.3 percent from 16.6 percent.

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Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was virtually unchanged in February with a one-point decline to 46 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

“Having risen strongly in 2012, the HMI hit a slight pause in the beginning of this year as builders adjusted their expectations to reflect the pace at which consumers are moving forward on new-home purchases,” observed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “The index remains near its highest level since May of 2006, and we expect home building to continue on a modest rising trajectory this year.”

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

Holding above the critical mid-point of 50 for a third consecutive month, the HMI component gauging current sales conditions fell by a single point to 51 in February. Meanwhile, the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months rose by one point to 50, and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers slipped four points to 32.

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Fannie Mae’s January 2013 National Housing Survey found that increasing confidence in home sales and an improved sense of job security provide further evidence of a strengthening housing market. Underlying the growing sense of optimism, the percentage of survey respondents who think it is a good time to sell a home continued to climb to 23 percent last month from 11 percent the same time last year. While expectations regarding personal finances stayed relatively flat last month, other housing indicators remained at or near survey highs, indicating consumers remain confident in the stability of the housing market.

Highlights from the survey include:

• The average 12-month home price change expectation fell slightly from last month’s survey high to 2.4 percent.
• At 41 percent, the share of those surveyed who believe home prices will go up in the next 12 months decreased by 2 percentage points from December’s survey high, while the share who believe home prices will go down returned to the survey low of 10 percent.
• The percentage of those surveyed who think mortgage rates will go up decreased by 3 percentage points to 41 percent, while those who think they will go down dipped slightly to 7 percent.
• Twenty-three percent of respondents say it is a good time to sell a house, up by 12 percentage points year-over-year.
• At 3.7 percent, the average 12-month rental price change expectation fell 0.9 percent from last month’s survey high.
• Half of those surveyed say home rental prices will go up in the next 12 months, a slight increase over December, and the highest level since the survey’s inception.
• The share of respondents who said they would buy if they were going to move held steady at 65 percent.

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The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index declined to 58.6 (1985=100) in January, down from 66.7 in December. The Expectations Index declined to 59.5 from 68.1. The Present Situation Index decreased to 57.3 from 64.6 last month.

Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions deteriorated in January, with those claiming business conditions are “good” declining to 16.7 percent from 17.2 percent, and those stating business conditions are “bad” increasing to 27.4 percent from 26.3 percent. Consumers’ assessment of the labor market has also grown more negative. Those saying jobs are “plentiful” declined to 8.6 percent from 10.8 percent, while those claiming jobs are “hard to get” increased to 37.7 percent from 36.1 percent.

Consumers’ optimism about the short-term outlook continued to deteriorate in January. Those expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months declined to 15.4 percent from 18.1 percent. However, those expecting business conditions to worsen declined slightly to 20.6 percent from 21.1 percent.

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A survey by RealtyTrac found that investors are optimistic about their local real estate market in 2013. Nearly 90 percent of investors surveyed have a mostly positive or extremely positive outlook.

The majority of investors surveyed, 63 percent, said they primarily or exclusively purchased properties in 2012 as buy-and-hold rentals, while the remaining 37 percent said they primarily or exclusively purchased properties to flip in 2012.

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A summary of surveys conducted by national homebuilder PulteGroup, Inc. shows that people are putting family first when making plans for their next move.  Whether it’s planning for more children or anticipating relatives to move in, the 2012 survey results reveal that the economy is no match for family priorities.

PulteGroup conducted four surveys in 2012 and focused on myriad topics from retirement to first-time home buyers. The results revealed a variety of trends, highlighting consumer confidence in the economy and housing market:

• More than 60 percent of still-working baby boomers plan to retire in less than 10 years and aren’t delaying retirement plans.  Nearly three-quarters say they are financially prepared to retire in 10 years or less.
• Sixty-one percent of renters plan to buy a home within the next two years.
• Top reasons renters have increased their interest in buying a home:  They like being able to call themselves homeowners (49 percent) and they view it as a good financial investment (44 percent).
• Renters are buying homes with more space for family/kids (36 percent) while current homeowners ages 18 – 34 want a larger home for their growing families (68 percent).

The surveys also show the importance of family across all generations, and some significant changes in family dynamics that often influence their next new home plans:

• Home buyers do not want to sacrifice family when buying a new home.  Only 21 percent of homeowners said moving away from their family would be a trade-off to get their “dream” home.
• Twice as many households as today expect to eventually share their home with their adult children or aging parents.  Thirty-one percent anticipate at least one adult child moving back home; and 32 percent anticipate an aging parent living with them.
• Family bonding was cited as the top reason for having adult children move back home (46 percent) and for aging parents (48 percent) to move in.
• Eighty-four percent of homeowners plan for their next home to be the same size or larger.
• About 62 percent of baby boomers want their home in retirement to be within the same state they currently live.  This represents a 20 percent increase compared with two years prior.
• Thirty-two percent of Baby Boomers want to live within 20 miles of their children/grandchildren upon retirement.

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Real estate professionals continued to be more optimistic about the direction of home values than homeowners in the fourth quarter, according to HomeGain’s fourth quarter 2012 home values survey. The survey found 65 percent of real estate professionals expect home values to increase in the next six months, up from 51 percent last quarter and up from 15 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, while 39 percent of homeowners expect home values to increase in the next six months.

A small percentage (11 percent) of real estate professionals expect home values to decrease in the next six months, unchanged from last quarter, and 20 percent of homeowners expect home values to decrease in the next six months, also unchanged from last quarter.

Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of real estate professionals and 41 percent of homeowners believe home values will stay the same in the next six months, according to the survey.

Seventy-nine percent of real estate professionals and 62 percent of homeowners think home values will increase in the next two years. In contrast, just 11 percent of real estate professionals and 17 percent of homeowners think home values will decrease in the next two years. Ten percent of real estate professionals and 31 percent of homeowners think home values will stay the same in the next two years.

According to surveyed agents and brokers, 75 percent of homeowners believe their homes are worth more than the recommended agent listing price. In contrast, 63 percent of home buyers believe homes are overpriced.

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