National News, but still good news!

Rising Home Prices, Increasing Equity Spark Move-up Sales

By Maria Patterson

This week’s breaking news regarding the significant jump in April home prices – posting record monthly growth and the fastest year-over-year growth in seven years – is just the latest in a series of statistics confirming that the real estate market is primed for the return of home sellers, who are now financially able and emotionally confident to list their current home in order to move up to their next.
The April home-price increase data from S&P/Case-Shiller comes on the tail of a report from CoreLogic earlier this month heralding the return of positive equity for 850,000 more residential properties in the first quarter of 2013, another sign that move-up buyers will become an increasingly prevalent market segment in the months ahead. According to CoreLogic, the national aggregate value of negative equity decreased more than $50 billion to $580 billion at the end of the first quarter from 631 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.
“It is hard to know market by market exactly how extensive the return to positive equity is, but from published data it looks like the movement is spread across the country,” says RE/MAX, LLC Chairman of the Board and Co-founder Dave Liniger. “In 2012, 1.7 million homeowners who were previously underwater achieved positive equity and about half that number achieved positive equity in the first quarter of 2013. For every home price increase of 5 percent another 1.2 million will reach positive equity. It appears to be a widespread phenomenon and one that will benefit this inventory-starved market.”