As the United States housing industry eagerly awaits two key reports that will be presented on Tuesday, February 26th, online real estate data giant Zillow is getting an early start on median home prices. Just days ahead of the closely-followed S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Index and the Federal Finance Housing Agency's (FHFA) House Price Index, Zillow reported its own data findings on home prices, which are very positive and encouraging.
While the S&P/Case Shiller and FHFA reports cover residential property prices through December 2012, Zillow's Real Estate Market Report shows data through January 2013. On a 12-month basis, Zillow reports a 6.2 increase equivalent to a median price of $158,100. This marks 15 months of steady price increases on the Zillow report. The last time a greater home appreciation was recorded was in 2006, when the housing bubble pushed median prices to grow an astonishing 7.5 percent in just one year.
Double-Digit Gains
Zillow's Real Estate Market Report compiles data from the 30 largest metropolitan housing markets in the U.S. Five metro areas in the report posted double-digit prince increases from 2012 to 2012. The current market leader with 21.9 percent, a metro housing market where real estate transactions and rental activities have been sizzling for more than a year. San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento posted double-digit gains for California, and even the former foreclosure city of Las Vegas gained 16.2 percent on median property values.
Renters are starting to feel the effect of the housing market recovery with a 4.3 percent annual increase on median monthly rental payments. According to the Zillow Rent Report, the national median payment for renters is currently at $1,271 per month.
Zillow Projections and Forecasts
Economists and data analysts at Zillow are predicting that the respected S&P/Case Shiller report will show a 6.7 annual median home increase on the 20 metropolitan housing market it normally follows. That projection is more optimistic than forecasts made by other economists, but it Zillow also takes into account foreclosure re-sale figures for its statistical models.
The January foreclosure data compiled by Zillow shows improvement, but it does not paint a rosy picture. Out of every 10,000 homes in the U.S., 5.54 were in some state of foreclosure. This high level of foreclosure activity is expected to continue over the next few months, which will hopefully alleviate the current inventory shortages in some regional housing markets.
