Real Estate Information Archive

This past week, the Federal Reserve announced it would cease using new money to purchase longer-term Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). This has lead many market watchers to believe interest rates will start to rise. After all, reduced Fed demand will lead to higher yields.

It's not quite that simple. For one, the Fed will continue to reinvest the proceeds of maturing notes, bonds, and MBS into new notes, bonds, and MBS. The Fed has also said that it won't allow its portfolio of these holdings, which exceeds $4 trillion, to shrink until it starts raising short-term rates. This isn't expected to occur until the second-half of 2015 at the earliest.

In addition, banks are picking up the slack in demand. Recent rules approved by the Fed, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. leave banks about $100 billion short of the $2.5 trillion in easy-to-sell assets that they need to meet new liquidity standards. Treasury securities and MBS help banks meet the standards.

At the same time, supply of Treasury securities is expected to drop. A falling fiscal deficit will result in less Treasury-debt issuance going forward. According to the CBO , the deficit for 2014 – for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 – was $486 billion, $194 billion less than the $680 billion deficit recorded in 2013. That’s the lowest deficit since 2007.

In short, we don't expect a meaningful increase in mortgage rates for some time, possibly not until the second quarter of 2015.

Information provided by Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Tight credit is frequent lament. In a Redfin survey , 16% of respondents stated that difficulty in obtaining financing was a challenge in the second quarter of 2014 compared to 8% in the first quarter.

This might be the perception, but the reality is that credit is gradually becoming easier to obtain, and that's been the case for the past two years. The Mortgage Bankers Association Mortgage Credit Availability Index continues to creep higher. In June, the index posted at 115.8 compared to 115.1 in May, which was better than the 113.8 in April. The index was set at 100 in March 2012.

To be sure, the younger crowd still has some difficulty with financing. As we noted a couple weeks ago, high student- loan debt is an issue. Obviously, that drives up the debt-to-income ratio. That aside, the issues aren't materially different for younger people today compared to younger people of previous generations. When starting off in life, most of us lack assets and have to scrimp to get head. That hasn't change.

The good news is housing continues to change for the better for all age groups. Price appreciation is falling back in line with historical norms. The prospect of slower price growth will bring more homes to market; there will be less incentive to hold out for a higher price. This, in turn, will further slow price growth.

The bottom Line: More people will be able to afford a home, and more funding will be available to those who want to buy a home. That's good news for everyone .

Information provided by Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

The foreclosure data continue to trend positively. RealtyTrac reports foreclosure filings declined 3 percent month-over-month in July and are down 10% year-over—year.

We are not surprised by the downward trend in foreclosures; it's simply more remunerative for banks to seek other alternatives than taking back a house. RealtyTrac reports that short sales, on average, sell for $25,000 more than an REO property.

Banks are no doubt being helped by the persistent uptrend in prices. On that front, CoreLogic reports national prices rose 2.5 percent year-over-year in June, and 6 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared to the first quarter.

Supply is a main price driver: there simply isn't enough supply to meet growing demand, particularly in the starter and low-price segments. Investor demand is impacting supply. Given the strong rental demand in many markets, investors are buying homes and turning them into rentals instead of flipping them; thus keeping the properties off the market.

As for new-home supply, builders only recently began to ramp up construction. New-home inventory is at levels unseen in decades. (Keep in mind; decades ago there were also fewer people.) More demand and less supply can only lead to one outcome – higher prices.

At the beginning of the year, few pundits were expecting prices to rise in 2012. Today, many have changed their tune. Zelman & Associates, a real estate research firm, for one, recently revised its forecast, predicting prices will rise 5 percent nationally in 2012. At the beginning of the year, Zelman's forecast a 1-percent decline.

Negative equity remains a problem in many markets, and that's also helping to keep supply low. But as prices move higher, more of these properties will turn positive. An even stronger price trend will, in turn, draw more buyers and more sellers into the market. That means more overall transaction activity, which means rising mortgage purchase demand.

As for rates on current mortgage demand, they moved up this past week. Most products saw a three or four basis-point increase. Given the trend in 10-year Treasury yields, we don't expect to see a pullback. Over the past two weeks, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has increased nearly 30 basis points. This suggests that investors are becoming less risk averse, pulling money out of Treasuries and putting that money into riskier investments: Over the same two-week period, the S&P 500 stock index is up over 6 percent.

Yes, the Federal Reserve has stated that it's determined to hold long-term lending rates low for the next two years, but don't assume the Fed can automatically achieve its goal. Markets are dynamic forces, and if more investors sell bonds in favor of other investments, yields on Treasury securities will continue to rise. That means mortgage lending rates will rise too.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

There was yet more confirmation this past week on what we already know: Home prices are rising. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index provided the latest positive data set. According to Case-Shiller, home prices pushed ahead a very strong 0.9 percent in May, which follows a 0.7 percent gain in April and a 0.8 percent gain in March. Best of all, the latest gains were widely dispersed, with 18 of the 20 cities Case-Shiller follows posting gains.

We tend to give Case-Shiller short shrift, because the data are two months old. Fresher data are found at Trulia, Zillow, and CoreLogic. But Case-Shiller is widely followed in the media, so this string of positive numbers should help to dispel any lingering concerns over a double-dip home-price recession.

The trend in foreclosures is a key factor in resurgent home prices. CoreLogic reports foreclosures continue to abate. In June, 60,000 foreclosures were completed, a 25 percent drop from the 80,000 foreclosures completed in June 2011. The current monthly rate of foreclosures is at a level unseen since 2007. Fewer foreclosures means less supply. Less supply, in turn, helps elevate home prices.

The number of foreclosures processed could have actually been smaller. CoreLogic CEO Anand Nallathambi addressed an issue we've been addressing off and on for the past year – regulation. In CoreLogic's foreclosure report, Nallathambi said, “[W] believe even more can be done to reduce the inventory of foreclosures by decreasing the level of regulatory uncertainty and expanding alternatives to foreclosure."

Regulation is an issue most of us share a common opinion. There's simply too much of it today. At this point, it's beneficial to encourage more risk taking, albeit rational risk taking. In other words, lenders should have more leeway in assessing borrower risk. The big frustration many of us confront are borrowers who don't fit the template, but who would make a good credit risk nonetheless. A slower housing recovery is the corollary to excluding these potential borrowers from the market.

With that off our chest, we can report that mortgage rates once again touched a new low, but just barely. In fact, rates across most products moved slightly higher as the week progressed. The most repeated explanation for the slight uptick is that investors are somehow less concerned over the ongoing European debt crises, so they've moved some money out of haven U.S. Treasury securities and into other investments.

When the European debt crises – centered on Spain, Greece, Portugal, and, to a lesser extent, Italy – will finally be resolved is anyone's guess. We expect it won't be resolved anytime soon. So when you couple continued fear in the market, which motivates people to invest in safe, low-yield debt, with the Federal Reserve's policy to hold long-term lending rates abnormally low through 2014, you're likely looking at sub-4 percent 30-year lending rates through the first quarter of 2013.

Of course, this can all change should the economy suddenly ignite, but it's difficult to see that occurring until uncertainty surrounding the November elections is removed. In other words, borrowers have time on their side, at least when it comes to accessing money. Problem is, if they are borrowing to buy a home, time isn't on their side. Waiting means they risk paying a higher price. That's something worth repeating to clients.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Last week, we reported on the Federal Reserve's renewed commitment to hold long-term rates low through the end of the year, and likely through 2012. So far, so good: mortgage lending rates once again hit a new all-time low.

You'd think that mortgage activity would be booming when the 30-year fixed-rate loan is consistently quoted below 4 percent. But that's not really the case. The mortgage lending business is good, but should be better. The market, especially for refinances, is still being held in check by negative equity and what is, in our opinion, excessively strict underwriting standards.

That said, the real issue isn't the cost of money, but the rise of risk aversion. Underwriting standards are a manifestation of risk: high risk aversion means higher underwriting standards, low risk aversions means the opposite.

In other words, we don't expect lower interest rates to spur additional lending demand. We see additional gains being spurred by a fall in risk aversion. The willingness to engage in riskier transactions, and buying a house is considered a riskier transaction because of its sheer size, is key. Risk aversion is positively correlated with uncertainty, and markets are suffering from a high level of uncertainty these days due to anemic economic and job growth.

We don't expect the housing market to back track, but for it to ratchet meaningfully forward, the underbrush of uncertainty must be swept away.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

If markets are anything, they are dynamic. The Arizona housing market is a perfect example. For years we did nothing but drone on about the intractability of Arizona's housing woes: the surging foreclosures, the soaring vacancies, the plunging home values, the mounting REO properties. The market was going nowhere but down, and there was no end in sight.

Now we find ourselves writing weekly on the Arizona recovery. A recent Bloomberg article reveals just how much the market has recovered, reporting that the inventory of previously owned houses for sale in Phoenix dropped 54 percent in April from a year earlier. This, in turn, has help lift the median sales price up 25 percent to $140,000.

This phenomenon of markets clearing happens almost imperceptibly at first, but then it becomes very perceptible. One month a prospective buyer is pondering a home he could buy for $200,000; the next month that same house lists for $220,000.

The point we want to emphasis is that markets turn much quicker than most market participants realize, which is why we continue to advise buyers not to wait until the turn is perceptible, because when that occurs the best deals vanish – Arizona is proof positive of that.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

No one number can explain a market. We mention that because the headline number on housing starts points to lower new home sales. The headline number says that housing starts declined 4.8 percent in May after rising 5.4 percent in April. The pace of starts fell to 708,000 annualized units, which fell short of the market's expectation for 720,000 units.

When we read past the headline, we find the drop was attributable to the volatile multi-family component, which fell 21.3 percent. The good news is that the much larger, more important single-family component posted another monthly gain, rising 3.2 percent for the month.

The home builder sentiment index also tells us something. The number rose to a multi-year high of 29 this month. When the index is broken down into components, we find that the outlook for single-family homes is even higher: that component is up two points to a recovery high of 32. Given the dearth of new-home inventory, we expect sentiment to continue to improve as we progress through the summer months.

As for existing homes, the market might be sputtering. Existing home sales fell 1.5 percent to 4.55 million annualized units in May. Existing home sales began the year at a 4.63 million annualized rate and have had trouble building off that base.

Though sales may have stagnated, pricing hasn't. The national median price of an existing home is now at $182,600, a 7.6 percent year-over-year gain. Inventory remains stable at a 6.6-month supply at the going sales pace. This suggests to us that distressed properties continue to be much less of a problem than pundits had predicted earlier in the year.

Of course, any enthusiasm or distress aroused by a national number needs to be tempered. All markets are local, and values often differ from zip code to zip code (and even street to street). That said, the national number is an aggregate number; that means it's composed of individual local markets. The up trend in national numbers over the past year tells us more local markets are on the rise.

Mortgage lending rates, on the other hand, are not on the rise. They remain at the lowest levels on record. In fact, in many markets they posted a new low this past week. We don't see rates rising soon, either; the Federal Reserve is determined that they remain at these low levels. At the latest Fed board meeting it was decided that the Fed will continue to buy long-term U.S. Treasury notes and mortgage-backed securities by rolling money from maturing short-term notes into these securities. More demand means lower yield.

Our friends in Greece and Spain are also driving demand. Every time these countries announce another round of fiscal woe, more money leaves these countries' banks and flows into U.S. Treasury and MBS securities, thus helping to hold mortgage lending rates low at the retail level.Borrowers probably won't be penalized for procrastinating, at least into the near future. That said, markets can turn, and they can turn much quicker than many buyers and sellers realize.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Let's call it “the crisis that never was.” We are referring to the mother lode of foreclosures and distressed properties – the shadow inventory – that so many pundits predicted would swamp the real estate market in 2012 and return home prices to a downward trajectory.

That's hardly been the case. RealtyTrac reports that servicers started a few more foreclosures in May than in April, but filings were still 4 percent lower than in May 2011. RealtyTrac goes on to tell us that foreclosure activity has decreased 20-straight months based on year-over-year comparisons.

Yes, foreclosures are still elevated compared to five years ago, but the market continues to handle them in a rational and orderly manner. Short sales have been an attenuating variable. Banks realize they can make more money treating delinquent mortgages with short sales than repossessions. Better pricing is the key variable to making a short sale the superior option. Why take on a home you have to maintain, manage, and market when improved pricing will naturally draw in buyers?

The dearth of inventory (which we discussed last week) is the principal contributor to rising prices. Realtor.com reports that the national inventory of for-sale residential properties is down over 20 percent year-over-year, dropping in 144 of the 146 markets it covers. Over the same period, the median age of inventory has dropped nearly 10 percent, while the median list price has risen over 3 percent.

The recent spike in mortgage purchase applications points to even more inventory contraction and/or higher prices as we head into the summer months. After holding in lackluster territory for much of the spring season, weekly mortgage applications took a huge 13-percent jump, signaling that the summer-selling season might be more brisk than many analysts had expected.

What's more, the composition of those buying into the reduced inventory also points to a healthier market. The more owner-occupied buyers who jump into the pool, the better. The data show that many more owner-occupied buyers have jumped into the pool in recent months.

Buyers of all stripes continue to benefit from an ultra-low lending rate environment. In past issues, we've discussed at length the benefits of financing real estate in a low-rate, low-price environment. In short, the opportunity costs of cash buying is high when mortgage lending rates are low (and vice versa), because the money allocated to the house could have been allocated to other cash-generating investments.

That opportunity cost got a little higher this past week, with rates on most lending products dropping a couple basis points. We don't expect them to move meaningfully higher over the next few weeks. Greece and Spain are still a mess, and now it appears Italy is set to join the fray. That means investors remain risk averse, which means more money flowing into haven securities, including the influential 10-year U.S. Treasury note.

That said, it's important to keep in mind that we have a supply-and-demand issue at work. Demand for mortgage products have spiked in recent weeks, which means processing times could rise. Therefore, it's still prudent for borrowers to get their applications in ASAP. The benefit of waiting for a lending rate five or 10 basis points lower than today's market rate can easily be offset by a home whose price rises or is snapped up by another buyer.

What's more, even though we expect rates to remain low, rates can (and have) turned on a dime.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

The data flow usually slows to a trickle during a holiday-shortened work week. That was case this past week, thanks to the extended Memorial Day weekend.

That said, the flow didn't completely dry up; there were still some notable releases worth mentioning. The pending home sales index was one, and not for particularly encouraging reasons. The index posted a surprising 5.5-percent decline in April after stringing together three months of strong gains. 

There were a couple extenuating factors at work in the index. It's possible that the jump in signed contracts we had seen in the first quarter was a reaction to the FHA's February announcement that it was increasing up-front and annual mortgage insurance premiums. Changes in government lending rules will always influence consumer behavior. In this instance, activity was likely brought forward more than it otherwise would have been without the FHA's lending-premium increases.

Inventory was also mentioned as a contributing factor for fewer homes being taken under contract. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR, mentioned that a dearth of inventory is limiting the number of transactions. In other words, demand is there, but supply isn't.

Lack-of-inventory is an interesting theme, and one we've been seeing with increasing frequency. It's paradoxical when you you think about it: Over the past year, there has been no shortage of stories detailing the dire consequences of excessive distressed property inventory. Now, we find that this inventory isn't hitting the market quickly enough. It appears demand has surged, but supply has lagged.

Interestingly, it's not just investors seeking distressed properties as potential rentals that's driving demand. Owner-occupied interest is also growing. Realtor.com reports that home-buyer interest in foreclosures has more than doubled over the past two-and-a-half years. Today, more than 64 percent of home buyers say they are interested in foreclosed property.

This unexpected increase in distressed-property demand begs the question: What should we worry about going forward – too many foreclosed properties or too few? Neither, might be the most rational answer.

We apparently don't have to worry about mortgage rates rising in the near future. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is down to a remarkably low 1.6 percent – its lowest yield ever. Mortgage-backed bonds and mortgage lending rates take their cue from the 10-year Treasury note, so it was no surprise to see mortgage lending rates hit another all-time low (albeit by only a few basis points) this past week.

So why do interest rates continue to hit record lows?

Investors have become more risk averse because of concerns of slowing U.S. economic growth and the potential fallout of a collapse of EU members Greece and Spain; therefore, many investors are moving money out of stocks and into high-quality bonds. Over the past month alone, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped nearly a thousand points; that itself is evidence money is leaving the stock market. Much of that money has moved into bonds.

Record low lending rates will likely stick with us through the summer selling season, but we don't think that's necessarily good. At this point, the prospect of rising rates would likely motivate more people to buy or refinance than the prospect of falling rates.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

We're at a point in the housing recovery where few people doubt we are actually in the midst of a recovery. Since the beginning of the year, we've been reporting news and data that have generally trended more positively and more optimistically.

Home builders are trending as positively and as optimistically as anyone in the housing sector these days. The NAHB/Wells Fargo sentiment index surged in May to hit a new recovery high of 29. The improved outlook is driven by strengthening consumer sales and buyer traffic, which, in turn, has lead to more housing construction. Housing starts rebounded 2.6 percent in April to 717,000 annualized units, considerably higher than the analysts' consensus forecast for 690,000 units.

While starts are up, foreclosures are down. In fact, foreclosure filings have fallen to their lowest level since July 2007. The five-year low is a product of a death of foreclosure activity in once very active states: Year-over-year foreclosure filings dropped 67 percent in Nevada, 44 percent in Arizona, and 30 percent in California. So much for the surge in distressed properties that was anticipated to swamp the market once the robo-signing imbroglio was put to rest.

Pricing trends also point to a sustained long-term recovery. The national median list price for homes rose by 0.7 percent in April from March to its highest level in nearly a year. 

That said, we're always quick to note that all housing markets are local. When we look at local markets we find that asking prices are up 25 percent in the formerly hard-hit market of Phoenix and 15 percent in the less-hard-hit market of Miami year-over-year.

Look for median asking prices to continue their push higher. Valuation firm Pro Teck reports housing inventory is running at a 6.3-months supply nationally, the lowest level in six years. Falling inventory coupled with rising demand points to one thing – a sustained upward trend in home prices.

The news gets even better when we factor in Fitch Ratings expectations for increased demand for private-label mortgage bond issuance; that is, mortgage bonds not issued by one of the government-sponsored entities (GSEs) – Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Ginnie Mae. The once flourishing private-label market reached $6 trillion in trading activity in 2007. The market is far below that level today, but transactions so far this year have already eclipsed the total for 2011. Fitch sees volume expanding further over the ensuing months. 

Mortgage lending might be the last hurdle to clear in the housing recovery. More security issuance in the private market means less reliance on the GSEs. That means a more vibrant, diversified lending environment and an environment more amenable to meeting more borrower’s needs.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.