Boom of 2013

The National Association of Realtors reported that about 5.1 million homes were sold in 2013. It was also noted that after 7 years, the housing industry was finally seeing results. The housing industry was up nearly 9.2% from 2011 and 20% from 2012.

What the Realtors Say?

The month of December showed an increase in house sales and exhibited more growth since July. The mortgage prices of homes were slowly increasing and potential buyers were reluctant to purchase a house. They deemed it as too expensive of a purchase.

The prices were high and unemployment is lower. This led to a significant drop in foreclosures and pent-up demands. The realtors concluded that while mortgages were high and continued to increase overtime; they were still quite low as compared to the past.

What Led To Fewer Sales of Homes?

Houses started going on the market fairly quickly, but they did not manage to sell. Soon, many homeowners began to put their property on the market. A difficulty that homeowners faced trying to sell their house was that as a result of increased mortgages, they had to increase the price of their house.

In the year 2013, the unemployment rate was comparatively low and consequently more houses were sold.

The mortgages were higher than the price of the actual property, and that resulted in more buyers looking to make a purchase. A report showed that homes available for sale are in limited supply, are priced fairly high, and less than a 5-month supply was available at the end of the year.

Distressed Home Sales

In December, the houses that were sold the most were distressed homes. There are a lot of buyers for foreclosure homes at the moment. In some cases, the mortgage owed on the house was about 14% and the property was sold at a fairly low price due to the debt. As compared to 2013, only a quarter of homes sold were labeled as distressed sales in 2012.