Home Sales Surge Nearly 22% in October as Prices Continue to Rise in Redfin Real-Time Home Price Tracker

SEATTLE, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Technology-powered real estate broker Redfin (www.redfin.com) today released its Real-Time Home Price Tracker for October 2012, showing home sales increasing 21.8 percent across 19 major U.S. markets. From September to October, home sales increased 9.8 percent, an unusual gain for this time of year. The report also showed:

Home prices continuing to rise:

• Home prices in October increased 8.4 percent year over year, and were up just 0.4 percent month over month.

Inventory still at historic lows:

• The number of homes for sale declined 29.4 percent from October 2011 to October 2012 (even larger than the 28.1% drop in September), and declined by 5.3 percent since September.

Homes still selling quickly:

• The percentage of listings that sold within 14 days of their debut inched up to 28.2 percent in October.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121113/SF11669)  

"With supply low, and, the economy slowly improving due to record-low interest rates, demand has increased. Household formation is now at a record high. High demand and low supply drives prices up," said Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin. "The $64,000 question is whether more people will list their homes for sale in 2013. Based on the conversations our agents have been having with homeowners, we think they will. We also believe that demand among home-buyers will increase, though that prediction has become less certain late in the year: almost no new Redfin customers are touring homes right now, fewer even than last year. But those who have been touring are writing offers at record levels. Everyone wants to get married on the first date."

This report is the earliest monthly analysis of home prices, sales and inventory across 19 U.S. markets, published weeks before any other index, based on the local databases used directly by Realtors to list properties and record sales. Click the following link to read the complete Redfin Real-Time Home Price Tracker. http://blog.redfin.com/?p=9746

Market-Specific Highlights and Lowlights:

Home Prices

• Seventeen of the 19 markets studied had higher prices than a year earlier.
• Phoenix showed the highest gain at 34% year-over-year.
• Long Island suffered the most, down 1.4% since September 2011.

Inventory

• The top seven markets with the largest year-over-year drop in inventory were all in California: Sacramento (-66.3%), Ventura (64.1%), San Francisco (-58.7%), Inland Empire (58.0%), San Jose (-57.4%), Los Angeles (-56.3%) and San Diego (-54.6%).
• The market with the smallest year-over-year drop in inventory was Chicago with inventory 4.3% lower than last year.

Selling Velocity

• The top six fastest-selling markets (% of homes selling in two weeks or less) are all in California: San Jose (56.3%), Ventura (50.8%), San Francisco (47.2%), Los Angeles (44.1%), San Diego (43.2%) and Inland Empire (40.9%).
• The slowest-selling market is Boston, with only 4.4% of homes selling in 14 days or less.

About the Real-Time Home Price Tracker
As a broker with access to dozens of Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) used by real estate agents to list properties and record sales, Redfin gets data within minutes of a sale, pending sale or listing activation, well before any government, media or analytics organization. Using MLS fields, Redfin is able to distinguish houses from condominiums and townhouses, which often sell for less money. To validate the accuracy of the data and to account for sales not handled by a real estate agent, Redfin compares MLS data with county records as they become available, using sophisticated algorithms to identify and resolve disparities about square footage or price for each address. Data at the local and neighborhood level are available in a spreadsheet, and the report methodology is available as an Adobe document.

About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate broker that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded and run by technologists, Redfin, has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not sales-people, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions. Redfin's online tools feature all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don't pay brokers a commission. The company serves 19 U.S. markets, and has closed more than $5 billion in home sales. Follow us on blog.redfin.com or @redfin.

SOURCE Redfin Corporation

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