RealtyTrac recently released its September and Q3 2015 U.S. Home Sales Report, highlighting some excellent results for home sellers across the nation.
Homeowners who sold during the third quarter realized an average price gain of $40,658 (17 percent) from the purchase price of their property, the highest average price gain for home sellers since the third quarter of 2007. The report also shows home sellers in the third quarter on average had owned their home for 6.72 years when they sold.
The eight-year high in average price gains for home sellers in the third quarter came despite slowing home price appreciation. The average sale price of single family homes and condos nationwide during the quarter was $263,976, up 0.2 percent from the previous quarter and up 2.4 percent from the third quarter of 2014 – the slowest year-over-year price appreciation in any quarter since home prices bottomed out in the first quarter of 2012.
The report also shows 2,487,664 existing single family and condo sales through the first three quarters of 2015, the highest level for the first nine months of a year since 2006 – a nine-year high.
“An increasing number of homeowners in 2015 have been cashing out the home equity they’ve gained during the housing recovery of the past three years,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “That may be a good decision because the data points to a plateauing market going forward. Home price appreciation is slowing, a trend that will continue if interest rates rise in the coming months as expected. Meanwhile the threat of rising interest rates combined with lowered premiums for buyers using FHA loans is spurring more demand.”
Buyers using Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans – typically low down payment loans utilized by first time homebuyers and other buyers without equity to bring to the closing table – accounted for 23.4 percent of all single family home and condo sales with financing – excluding all-cash sales – in the third quarter of 2015, up from 23.2 percent in the second quarter and up from 17.9 percent in the third quarter of 2014 to the highest share since the second quarter of 2012.
“Home sales in the third quarter saw an increase in first-time home buyers in the area. With FHA loans accounting for nearly a third of the overall purchase transactions across the state, low interest rates, and the tax benefits of homeownership continue to be driving factors for home buyers to elect to purchase, versus renting,” said Michael Mahon, president at HER Realtors in Ohio. “Seeing greater homeownership in communities, as compared to vacancies a few years ago, is providing notable increases in equity for all homeowners to enjoy.”
“The millennials and first-time homebuyers are kicking in and taking advantage of low interest rates and loosening financing options,” said Mike Pappas, CEO and president of the Keyes Company, covering the South Florida market where average home seller price gains in the third quarter ranged from 11.7 percent in Palm Beach County to 14.9 percent in Miami-Dade County. “Our market has returned to a balanced normal market with real sellers and real buyers.”
