RealEstateEconomyWatch.com

The latest national housing report from RE/MAX is the second price report to show national average prices down modestly from last September, confirming fears that markets have not fully recovered from the second dip in prices during the first quarter of this year.

RE/MAX, which uses MLS data in 54 larger markets, found that September prices were down 3.3 percent from last year at this time and 2.5 percent from August.  Last week Clear Capital reported prices nationally were down 3.8 percent from September 2010.

Before the September dip, RE/MAX said its prices had increased for 4 of the last 7 months, while on a year-to-year basis, median price losses have been improving for 6 consecutive months. Of the 53 metro areas reviewed for this report, 17 saw price increases from last year, including:  Detroit, MI +13.4 percent, Miami, FL +8.4 percent,  Orlando, FL +7.8 percent,  Anchorage, AK +5.1 percent, and Indianapolis, IN +4.5 percent.

September sales were down seasonally from August, dropping 14.6 percent.  However, sales were up 7.6 percent year over year, making September the third month in a row that sales were higher than the same month a year ago.  Transactions have shown positive growth for 4 of the 9 months in 2011.  Of the 53 metro areas surveyed, 44 experienced a rise in home sales from 2010, including: Des Moines, IA +31.3 percent, Minneapolis, MN +30.1 percent, Wilmington, DE +28.4 percent, Trenton, NJ +27.3 percent, and Providence, RI +23.5 percent.

RE/MAX also confirmed a steady decline in inventories nationally, falling in September for the fifteenth month in a row.  The average inventory of homes-for-sale in the 53 metro areas surveyed dropped 4.8 percent from August and 20.2 percent from September 2010, resulting in a  7.7 months supply of homes for September, which is up from 6.8 in August, but down from the 9.8 months supply seen in September 2010. Average days on market for 53 markets was 94, just four days higher than the average of 90 in August, and six days higher than the average in September 2010.