Reposted from MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – After years of housing woes, the news has started to turn.
One survey of U.S. home prices just charted a jump of 4.6 percent compared to August last year, the largest increase in more than six years, according to CoreLogic.
So are we out of the woods? And when will our homes be worth what they used to be worth?
Minneapolis, Minn. – Arrows on the Twin Cities real estate chart pointed upward for the fifth consecutive month, according to the Residential Real Estate Price Report Index, a monthly analysis of the 13-county Twin Cities area prepared by the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business.
“Twin Cities’ housing data for June continued to show encouraging signs for the fifth month in a row,” observed Herb Tousley, director of real estate programs at the university.
Will the trend will continue? “In 2011 the market was in a similar condition after a spring and early summer run-up, only to be derailed by a lack of confidence created by the federal debt-level-ceiling controversy, the U.S. government credit downgrade, and the emergence of financial problems in Europe,” Tousley said.
“Barring any serious external shocks, the second half of 2012 will test the durability of gains made in the first half of the year,” he said. “Historically, sales volume and median prices have decreased in the second half of the year.
“Will sales volumes and median prices continue to exceed last year’s levels? If the answer is yes, then it would appear the market has established the beginning of a sustained recovery,” he said. (more…)
