Housing-Related News: Home Prices Increase and Foreclosures Decline

From May 2012 to May 2013, home prices rose by 12.2 percent in metro areas nationwide, based on the Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released this morning. This was the largest annual increase since March 2006. In the Portland metro area, home prices increased by 12.5 percent over the year and by 2.2 percent from April. More can be found in the full article from The Oregonian.

In other housing-related news, foreclosures were down 68,000 over the year in June, which was the 19th straight month of year-over-year declines in foreclosures, according to CoreLogic. The Oregonian also reported that 4,180 homes in Oregon were foreclosed in the year ending in June and that "about 2.8 percent of the state's mortgaged homes are currently in foreclosure."

Finally, the Census Bureau reported today that the homeownership rate nationwide in the second quarter of 2013 was 65.0 percent, which was 0.5 percentage point lower than the second quarter of 2012. Rental and homeowner housing vacancy rates also fell over the year. The release noted that "national vacancy rates in the second quarter 2013 were 8.2 percent for rental housing and 1.9 percent for homeowner housing." For additional information, check out the full release from the Census Bureau.