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Regulators' New Target

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Th e M Rep o RT | 53 O r i g i nat i O n s e r v i c i n g a na ly t i c s s e c O n da r y m a r k e t ANALYTICS Department the latest local eDition 5.9-percent rise in payrolls due to an increase in homebuilding to accommodate the state's rapidly growing population, Wells Fargo reported. Where the housing market's recovery is concerned, however, Colorado's struggles mirror those of the country as a whole, ac- cording to Wells Fargo. Year-to-date, home sales are down 1.8 percent from last year in Colorado, while single-family home sales have declined 6.2 percent from a year ago. This year's decline in home sales follows a surge in 2013, which saw sales of single-family homes jump 14.6 percent. A possible contributing factor to the state's weaker home sales, according to Wells Fargo's economists, could be a lack of inventory, as new home listings have fallen in 2014. Wells Fargo says the outlook for Colorado's housing market looks promising despite the decline in single-family home sales. Multifamily sales are up 17.4 percent after large gains last year. The number of residential construction permits for both single-family and multifamily units has increased along with the rise in construction jobs, which makes Colorado an out- lier from the national trend. Home prices have increased 7.9 percent annually and are above their pre-recession peak, which has kept the negative eq- uity rate in Colorado 5 percent- age points below the national average. Wells Fargo reports growing demand for vacation homes in Colorado has been a contributing factor in the rise of home prices. asking Prices Up 7.8% in august The SouTh TakeS The lead in price gainS. TEXAS // Home prices rose nationwide in August, boost- ing long-dawdling markets in the South and accelerating the recovery in other states as foreclosure gluts begin to clear, according to Trulia. The real estate website moni- tored prices and rents in August, adjusting compositions for listed homes and third-party data from RealtyTrac. According to Trulia, asking home prices only nudged up 1 percent nationally month-over- month but leapt ahead by 7.8 percent year-over-year. The South helped carry much of the growth, boasting seven of the 10 U.S. metros with the biggest gains. Residential home markets in Florida posted some of the largest increases in asking prices, according to Trulia. Asking prices went up year-over-year in places like Miami, Lakeland- Winter Haven, and West Palm Beach by 15.6 percent, 14.8 percent, and 14.5 percent, respec- tively. Birmingham, Alabama, also posted a 15.6-percent increase from August of last year, a strong improvement from the 0.9-percent decline in asking prices reported year-over-year in August 2013. Trulia found home price trends slowing outside the southern region, especially in California. Asking prices reflected some of the same double-digit changes in Riverside-San Bernardino and Oakland, but that represents a more glacial pace after the two cities topped out last year with increases of 26 percent and 30.9 percent, respectively. Other markets around the United States offered more modest price gains in light of a post-recession boon. Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief econo- mist, tied regional price differ- ences to a foreclosure bottleneck that continues to open up as courts in states with judicial processes finally begin to clear their dockets. Excluding foreclosures, asking prices for homes on sale climbed ahead by 6.9 percent year-over- year in those states with judicial processes, not far from the 7.8 percent increase observed in states without the same court- review requirements. "Despite the pain that a longer foreclosure process can cause, markets in judicial states have had a more sober and sustainable price recovery," Kolko said. To illustrate this point, Trulia noted in its report that annual price gains in August 2013 were 5.1 percent in judicial states—not far off the 6.9 percent increase in August 2014. That compares to a 14.1-percent increase recorded in August 2013 in non-judicial states, which are dealing with greater volatility as price gains decelerated to just under 8 per- cent in August 2014. Kolko added that states in the Northeast continue to see small- er bumps in their home prices as a result of milder boom-and- bust cycles in the last decade and still-stagnant job growth. Trulia also found rents increasing by 6.3 percent since August of last year, with five of the 25 biggest rental markets showing price gains of more than 10 percent year-over-year. These top performers include: Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, Denver, and Miami. ANALYTICS

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