Morning Briefing: New York state leads home price gains

New York state leads home price gains… Elkins mortgage brokerage acquisition completed… Third sales dip of 2016 for Mass. homes in tight market…

New York state leads home price gains
Home prices increased by 5.4 per cent with gains led by New York state, Black Knight Financial says.

Its home price index shows that prices in September were just 0.6 per cent away from a new national peak. The monthly gain for home prices was 0.1 per cent but New York state saw a rise of 0.9 per cent while Florida and Utah gained 0.6 per cent.

The three best-performing metros were in Florida; Lakeland and Palm Bay which saw prices gain 1.2 per cent; and Homosassa Springs, up 1.0 per cent.

Meanwhile, home prices in St. Louis, Mo., continue to underperform, falling another 0.7 per cent for the month and pulling the metro even further from its 2007 peak; it remains alone among the top 40 metros in seeing negative year-over-year movement.
 
Elkins mortgage brokerage acquisition completed
The acquisition of George Elkins Mortgage Banking Company by Walker & Dunlop has been completed.

Elkins has served as the direct loan origination arm for an array of life insurance companies, banks, trusts, pension funds, thrifts and other private capital sources since 1922; to become one of the largest independent mortgage brokerages in the US.

The deal adds 14 commercial mortgage originators to Walker’s team of 500 professionals.
 
Third sales dip of 2016 for Mass. homes in tight market
Home sales in Massachusetts were down in October, the third dip of 2016 which has overall been a successful year for the state.

The 5.6 per cent year-over-year dip for single-family home sales (4,596) reported by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reflected a further decline in inventory which hit its lowest level since January 2005.

“This is only the third time Massachusetts has seen a decrease in year-over-year closed sales this year,” said 2016 MAR President Annie Blatz, branch executive at Kinlin Grover Real Estate in Brewster. “The demand continues to be there, but when there are so few homes for sale, it’s hard for the number of sales to continue to go up.”

The tight market increased the median price of single-family homes to $354,000, a rise of 5.7 per cent from a year earlier.

For condos, sales were down 5.8 per cent to 1,651 units with a median price of $325,000, up 2.2 per cent.