Press Release: April 25, 2013

 

First-Time Homebuyers and Current Homeowners Driving
Housing Market in 2013, New HousingPulse Results Show

 

WASHINGTON, DC (April 25) – Despite concerns that investors are driving a resurgent housing market in early 2013, the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey results suggest first-time homebuyers and current homeowners are in fact the major players in this year’s marketplace.

And the active presence of non-investor homebuyers is helping create a remarkably strong market for non-distressed properties leading into the important spring-summer home buying season.

HousingPulse nationwide data for March show that current homeowners continued to dominate the overall home purchase market with a 42.2 percent market share, based on a three-month moving average. While that was down from the levels seen last fall, it was still up on a year-over-year basis.

Meanwhile, first-time homebuyers stepped up their activity, reaching an eight-month market share high of 36.1 percent in March, according to HousingPulse results.

Although investors have been getting a lot of media attention recently in terms of driving – if not dominating – home purchase activity, their share of the national housing market was just 21.8 percent in March. HousingPulse data show the investor market share nationwide hovering between 19 and 23 percent for much of the past year.

If you look at just non-distressed properties, the largest segment of the housing market, the investor share was only 13.3 percent in March. Current homeowners had a 50.0 percent market share and first-time homebuyers a 36.8 percent of the non-distressed housing market last month.

Although a lack of inventory is continuing to plague many areas around the country, the non-distressed housing sector is posting some very impressive numbers that point to a robust market. “We are seeing a very strong market for non-distressed properties and that is important because the metrics for this segment are not affected by policy decisions at mortgage servicers to release or not release distressed properties onto the market,” noted Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “It bodes well for the spring-summer buying season.”

The average number of offers for non-distressed properties, based on a three-month moving average, hit a three-and-a-half year high of 2.2 in March, HousingPulse results show. In the hot California housing market, the average number of offers for non-distressed properties was 4.0 in March.

Another important measure of the strength of the non-distressed market is the average time it takes to sell a property. In March, the average time-on-market for non-distressed properties fell to 10.9 weeks – the lowest level recorded by HousingPulse in three-and-a-half years.

The ratio of a home listing price to its actual sales price, a key gauge of homebuyer demand, also reached new highs for non-distressed properties in March, according to HousingPulse results. The average sales-to-list-price ratio for non-distressed properties was 96.8 percent last month. That compared to 94.9 percent a year ago.

The Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey involves approximately 2,000 real estate agents nationwide each month and provides up-to-date intelligence on home sales and mortgage usage patterns.

For more information on the survey, contact John Campbell at Campbell Surveys at (202) 363-2069 or .

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4/25/2013