2008 November « The Philly Pretzel

Archive for November, 2008

Philadelphia Housing Market is Still Outperforming

November 25, 2008 at 9:36 pm · Filed under Mortgage, Philadelphia Market Conditions

philadelphia-area-foreclosure-rate-2008-3rd-q

The Philadelphia area is showing more stability than most other markets, even though we are undeniably in the midst of a correction. Only 0.33% of all Philadelphia-area households—about one in every 303 households—are in the process of being foreclosed upon. This is well below the foreclosure rate in places like Las Vegas (3.5%), Southern California (3.1%) or Phoenix (2.1%).

What’s more, just 4.4% of Philadelphia homes bought in the last five years were considered “under water” – meaning that more is owed on them then they could bring if they were sold today. With negative equity much lower than the rest of the country, indicating that the area’s value declines may stay relatively small. And Philly has a healthy five-year annualized appreciation of 6% compared with 3.4% nationally.

Technorati: philadelphia foreclosures, philly housing market, philadelphia foreclosure rate

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Philadelphia Housing Sales Decline Modestly

November 16, 2008 at 12:40 pm · Filed under Philadelphia Market Conditions

Philly Real Estate Bucks National Trend But Challenging Conditions Persist.

Philadelphia home values continued to exhibit significant resiliency this past quarter, despite low sales levels and steady negative news about the economy.

The typical Philadelphia home fell in value by an average of only 0.3%. Philadelphia house prices are cumulatively down 6.8% from the housing market’s peak of just over one year ago, according to the latest analysis by Wharton economist Kevin Gillen.

Dr. Kevin Gillen is an economist at the Real Estate Department of the Wharton School and Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania. He analyzes the Philadelphia real estate market using the city’s real estate database through Hallwatch, a watchdog group. The results are published in a research paper called Philadelphia House Price Indices each quarter as a public service to the Philadelphia real estate community.

Download the full report[pdf]

Read the Hallwatch article: Philadelphia Housing Declines Modestly; Bucks National Trend

2008-3rd-q-change-by-neighborhood1

But while the Philadelphia’ market has declined less than many other U.S. cities, the news here is still sobering:

• Inventories (homes listed for sale) still stand at all- time high levels. As of September, there were nearly 11,000 houses listed for sale in Philadelphia, nearly double their pre- bubble average.

• The number of homes that actually sold under arms-length conditions in Q3 stood at just over 4,500; well below the nearly 8,000 that was the average during the boom years.

• The continued high number of homes for sale combined with a continuously shrinking pool of buyers means homes continue to linger on the market. The average time it took to sell a home in Philadelphia in Q3 was 67 days, which is well above the 30-40 days it takes in a balanced market.

• And, while Philadelphia’s rate of foreclosure is well below the average for most large U.S. cities, it is nonetheless up nearly 50% from one year ago.

house-sales-per-quarter-1995-2008

**Hallwatch.org is a private and independently maintained watchdog website that does a lot of in-depth, independent and investigative pieces on city politics, as well as real estate.

Technorati: Philadelphia real estate, market conditions, homes for sale

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