Fort Worth Business Press, June 2, 2014 Vol. 26, No. 21 | Page 8

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June 2 - 8, 2014 | fwbusinesspress.com

Home prices on upswing
n Les Christie
CNN

U.S. home prices remain on the upswing at the
start of 2014, as a slow recovery from the bust that
led to the financial crisis continues.
In the first three months of this year, prices rose 10.3
percent on an annual basis, according to the S&P/
Case-Shiller report. In March, an index of 20
large housing markets gained 12.4 percent
year-over-year.
The year-over-year gains
are likely to moderate,
according to Stan
Humphries, chief

economist for Zillow, because current prices are being
compared with months when many markets were at or
near their bottoms after the collapse. Comparisons in
the future will be against less depressed prices.
There are several other factors that continue to boost
prices, however, including unusually low mortgage
rates and the diminishing number of foreclosures
and short sales on the market, which tend to sell
for less. Those factors will take time to disappear.
“We’re still several years away from a housing
market driven purely by fundamentals
like income growth and rising household
formations,” said Humphries.
Prices remain about 18 percent below their
peak, which was reached in the summer of
2006.
Trends in the housing market have been
mixed, with a bounce for housing starts in
April and better new home sales. Buyers
have been able to take advantage of very
low mortgage interest rates, but tight
loan underwriting still keeps many
potential homebuyers out of the

Dallas-Fort Worth market
growth is slow but steady

market.
Even though price gains have moderated, all the
cities in the 20-city index recorded gains year over
year, led by Las Vegas at 21.2 percent. Prices in San
Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles also rose faster
than the average.
On a monthly basis, New York was the only city in
the index with a decline in March.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth market, the index was up
1.2 percent from February and was up 10 percent
from March 2013.
The price increases will have a positive impact
on mortgage borrowers, according to Bill Banfield,
Quicken Loans vice president.
“While the increase in home prices is slowing,
homeowners have still gained a significant amount
of equity in the last year,” he said.
That will push some of the 9 million borrowers
who are still underwater on their loans, owing more
than their homes are worth, above water for the first
time in years.
That will make them less likely to lose their homes
to foreclosure and help stabilize prices. n

“We’re still several years away from a housing market driven purely by fundamentals like income growth
and rising household formations.”
– Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow