Woulda Shoulda Coulda: Real Estate Regrets to Avoid
Trulia’s latest consumer survey revealed that 52% of people regret something about their current home or the process of choosing it. This season, under the pressure of tight inventory, buyers and renters have to try hard not to make the same mistakes
Spring house-hunting season is upon us. Home searches peak in March and April, and this year the search is especially frantic as inventory is near a 12-year low. Many homes don’t stay on the market for long, so buyers will have to move fast – especially in markets with bidding wars and competing investor activity. But when it comes to searching for a home, as with everything else, moving too fast leads to mistakes and regrets. To find out which regrets are most common – and who is most prone to making decisions they’ll later regret — we asked more than 2,000 consumers what, if anything, they regret about their current home and most recent home-search process.
Relative to Construction Activity, There Are Actually a Lot of Construction Jobs
Even though construction employment is rebounding more slowly than construction activity, there are more construction jobs per unit under construction than normal
In the monthly employment report for March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this morning that residential construction jobs increased 3.8% year-over-year. (We include both “residential building construction” and “residential specialty trade contractors” – here’s why.) That’s faster than the overall employment increase of 1.4% – reflecting that housing is now a critical part of the economic recovery.
A quick glance suggests that construction jobs aren’t keeping up with construction activity. Even though residential construction employment growth is outpacing overall employment growth, it’s puny relative to the rebound in construction activity, measured in housing units or dollars:
|
The Housing Recovery: Jobs, Housing Units, and Dollar Value |
||
|
% Change |
% Change since bottom |
|
| Residential construction jobs |
3.8% |
7.0% |
| New housing units under construction |
28% |
39% |
| Dollar value of residential construction (new construction only) |
34% |
50% |
| Dollar value of residential construction (new construction plus improvements) |
18% |
32% |
| Note: Jobs data through March 2013, from BLS; units under construction and dollar values through February 2013, from Census. Dollar values are adjusted for inflation and reflect the cost of labor, materials, contractor’s profit, and more. “Bottom” was January 2011 for jobs; Aug 2011 for units; May 2011 for dollar value (new only); and July 2011 for dollar value (new plus improvements). | ||
Single-Family Home Rents Flatten as Investors Saturate the Market
Rents rose just 0.1% year-over-year on single-family homes and 2.9% on apartments. Locally, rents on single-family homes are flat or falling in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Atlanta
The Trulia Price Monitor and the Trulia Rent Monitor are the earliest leading indicators of how asking prices and rents are trending nationally and locally. They adjust for the changing mix of listed homes and therefore show what’s really happening to asking prices and rents. Because asking prices lead sales prices by approximately two or more months, the Monitors reveal trends before other price indexes do. With that, here’s the scoop on where prices and rents are headed.
Prices Up 7.2% Year-over-Year, Rising in 91 of 100 Largest Metros
In March, asking home prices rose 1.1% month-over-month, seasonally adjusted. That’s an annualized growth rate of 14%. Quarter-over-quarter, prices are up 3.5%, seasonally adjusted. Year-over-year, prices are up 7.2% nationally and are higher than one year ago in 91 of the 100 largest metros.
|
March 2013 Trulia Price Monitor Summary |
|||
|
% change in asking prices |
# of 100 largest metros with asking-price increases |
% change in asking prices, excluding foreclosures |
|
| Month-over-month, seasonally adjusted |
1.1% |
Not reported |
1.4% |
| Quarter-over-quarter, seasonally adjusted |
3.5% |
90 |
4.0% |
| Year-over-year |
7.2% |
91 |
8.0% |
Take Me Next Door to the Ball Game
Neighborhoods near Major League Baseball stadiums cost more – especially if the team has a better shot at winning the 2013 World Series.
Baseball’s 2013 season begins Sunday night, when the Texas Rangers go to Houston to take on the Astros. Most other teams kick off the season on Monday. To mark the annual start of America’s national pastime, we looked at home prices in the neighborhoods near major-league stadiums.
If you want to live close enough to the ballpark to hear the crowd and see the lights from home–and of course, walk to the game–it’ll cost you. We examined asking home prices from the past year on Trulia in the neighborhoods within a mile or two of each stadium (excluding Toronto). It costs most to live near AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants: $653 per square foot. Living near Atlanta’s Turner Field or Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium costs only one tenth as much:
|
Top 5 Most Expensive Baseball Stadium Neighborhoods |
||||
| # | Team | Stadium | Median price per SQFT | Stadium area price relative to metro price |
| 1 | San Francisco Giants | AT&T Park |
$653 |
1.3 |
| 2 | Boston Red Sox | Fenway Park |
$584 |
2.6 |
| 3 | San Diego Padres | PETCO Park |
$435 |
1.9 |
| 4 | Washington Nationals | Nationals Park |
$392 |
2.3 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Dodgers | Dodger Stadium |
$387 |
1.6 |
|
Top 5 Least Expensive Baseball Stadium Neighborhoods |
||||
| # | Team | Stadium | Median price per SQFT | Stadium area price relative to metro price |
| 1 | Kansas City Royals | Kauffman Stadium |
$28 |
0.3 |
| 2 | Atlanta Braves | Turner Field |
$64 |
0.9 |
| 3 | Milwaukee Brewers | Miller Park |
$72 |
0.7 |
| 4 | Pittsburgh Pirates | PNC Park |
$85 |
0.9 |
| 5 | Texas Rangers | Rangers Ballpark |
$86 |
1.1 |
Note: median price per square foot in the neighborhood approximately one or two miles around the stadium. Final column is the ratio of stadium-area median price to metro median price. Values above 1 mean the stadium area is more expensive than the metro area overall.
0 commentsHousing Market 53% Back to Normal
Trulia’s Housing Barometer improved in February, up 20 percentage points from one year ago
Each month, Trulia’s Housing Barometer charts how quickly the housing market is moving back to “normal.” We summarize three key housing market indicators: construction starts (Census), existing home sales (NAR), and the delinquency-plus-foreclosure rate (LPS First Look). For each indicator, we compare this month’s data to (1) how bad the numbers got at their worst and (2) their pre-bubble “normal” levels.
In February 2013, all three measures held steady or improved:
- Construction starts notched up. Starts were at a 917,000 annualized rate, up 0.8% month-over-month and up 28% year-over-year. Aside from a December spike in construction, February starts were at the second-highest level since July 2008. And 31% of February construction starts were in multi-unit buildings–compared with the typical level of 20%. Construction starts are now 43% of the way back to normal.
- Existing home sales also increased. Sales rose slightly to 4.98 million in February from 4.94 million in January. Year-over-year, sales were up 10%. Excluding distressed sales, conventional home sales were up 25% year-over-year in February. Importantly, inventory–which has been very tight and could hold back sales–rose almost 10% in February, which is a bigger jump than the typical seasonal increase. Overall, existing home sales are 70% back to normal.
- The delinquency + foreclosure rate dropped. The share of mortgages in delinquency or foreclosure dropped from 10.44% in January to 10.18% in February, and is now at its lowest level since October 2008. The combined delinquency + foreclosure rate is 46% back to normal.
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