“There are coincident reasons for this trend: 1) sales growth is highest among homes in the highest home price tiers, and 2) home sales are shrinking in the lowest price tier-most likely a result of limited inventory in this price range as would be expected in a housing market where prices are rising.
Sales in the lowest price tier fell by more than 7 percent nationally while sales in higher priced categories were up by more than 30 percent from September one year ago,” she said.
While distressed sales as a share of closed sales ticked up in September, the longer-term trend for these properties has been down. Single-digit market share of distressed properties could be seen in the months ahead. This means smaller inventories of low-priced homes and smaller sales shares for low price homes relative to high priced homes which will mean continued upward pressure on the median price of homes compared to one year ago until additional inventories help relieve some of this pressure.
For more information, visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com.
