Posted by lindsay on February 16, 2014

The American housing market wasn’t expected to see many gains over the 2012/13 years, however, the opposite happened, and it improved at a rather fast rate. Over 4.2 million homes were sold in 2012, close to the 5.5 million average just a year before the crash.

At the beginning of the year, high numbers of homes were still foreclosing, leading some individuals to think prices would fall or remain stagnant. “Housing was clearly one of last year’s greatest surprises,” said one U.S. Chief Economist in a recent Fiscal Times article. The foreclosures actually ended up helping, because the negative equity assisted to revive hard hit markets. Other factors that aided housing recovery included:

1. A decline of real estate owned sales and inventory
2. A rise in short sales
3. An increase in non-distressed home sales
4. Fewer mortgage delinquencies
5. Home price growth across diverse geographies
6. Reduced foreclosures by 2012 year end

To learn more about these factors, visit American property analyst CoreLogic, and read their New Year’s Report at: http://www.corelogic.com/downloadable-docs/MarketPulse_2013-January.pdf?WT.mc_id=prnw_130114_AB3wD.