RealtyTrac released its August 2015 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows single family home and condo sales through August were on pace for an eight-year high nationwide and in 110 out of 204 (54%) metropolitan statistical areas with sufficient sales data.
A total of 1,947,028 U.S. single family homes and condos sold through August in 2015, up 5.4% from the same time period a year ago to the highest total for the first eight months of the year since 2007, when there were 2,069,963 sales. The 110 metro areas on pace for at least an eight-year high in home through August included Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, Riverside-San Bernardino, Detroit, Seattle, Tampa, Minneapolis and Portland.
Out of the 204 local markets, 58 (28%) were on pace through August to reach nine-year highs in home sales in 2015, and 22 (11%) were on pace through August to reach 10-year highs, including Denver, San Diego, the Florida markets of Sarasota, Naples, and Palm Bay, along with Grand Rapids, Michigan and Reno, Nevada.
“The continued strength in sales volume across a wide spectrum of markets in August indicates that shockwaves from recent global stock market instability have not weakened the housing recovery and in fact there is evidence that the instability has fueled more demand for U.S. real estate,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac. “The share of cash sales nationwide in August bounced back from a seven-year low in July, and the month-over-month increase in cash sales share was more pronounced in markets that have traditionally been magnets for foreign cash buyers, including Boston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle and New York.”
The share of buyers using Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans – typically loan down payment loans with an average down payment of about 3 percent – continued to increase in August, when 23.1% of all single family and condo sales were to FHA borrowers, up from 23.0% in July and up from 17.8% in August 2014.
“It wasn’t just cash buyers that kept home sales volume strong in August,” Blomquist noted. “The share of buyers using FHA loans in August increased 30 percent from a year ago, and the year-over-year increase in the share of FHA buyers was 50 percent or more in markets such as Nashville, Phoenix, Colorado Springs, Portland and San Diego. Those markets with a solid and fast-growing share of FHA buyers are poised for longer, more sustainable growth going forward than markets that are more dependent on capricious cash buyers.”
Among metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 1 million, those with the highest share of FHA buyers were Las Vegas, Riverside-San Bernardino, Baltimore, Phoenix and Atlanta.
