Asking prices in the Trulia Price Monitor rose more than 5 percent from last year, a substantial improvement from 2011.
By Peter Ricci
Asking prices increased 0.7 percent from November to December and 5.1 percent year-over-year in the latest Trulia Price Monitor, which studied the asking prices of for-sale homes listed on Trulia in December.
That’s a considerable turnaround from the December 2011 Trulia Price Monitor, when asking prices fell 4.3 percent. Similarly, Decembers number’s completed a strong acceleration in quarterly increases for asking prices: after increasing 0.8 percent quarter-to-quarter in Q1 2012, asking prices rose 0.4 percent in Q2, 1.4 percent in Q3 and then finally 2.3 percent in Q4.
Trulia Price Monitor – Keeping Pace with Asking Rents
In addition, the Trulia Price Monitor in December kept pace with the Trulia Rent Monitor, which had routinely exceeded asking prices throughout 2012:
- Nationally, rents were up 5.2 percent year-over-year, which was consistent with the rest of 2012, when rents increased by roughly 5 percent each month over the previous year.
- As with the last two Trulia Rent Monitors, Houston led the way, with asking rents increasing an incredible 16.2 percent from December 2011 (asking prices were up 3.1 percent).
- Other notable metropolitan areas included Miami, where asking rents rose 10.3 percent and asking prices by 8.9 percent; Denver, where asking rents rose 8.1 percent and asking prices by 12.7 percent; and Chicago, asking rents were up 6.5 percent, but asking prices down 1.1 percent.
- Altogether, asking prices were up in 82 of the nation’s 100 largest metros in the Trulia Price Monitor for 2012, compared with 12 metros in 2011.
Here’s a graph Trulia provided us that shows the Trulia Price Monitor’s strong 2012 performance:
Solid Footing for Housing Market in 2013
Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist, said that the strong increases in asking prices give the housing market solid footing heading into 2013, and not just in the homebuying and selling business.
“The housing market enters 2013 with a running start,” Kolko said. “Price gains picked up steam in 2012, starting with modest increases early in the year and accelerating in the third and fourth quarter. In 2013, rising prices will encourage more new construction and will encourage some homeowners to sell, which will help alleviate the current inventory shortage.”