Home Values Are Up. Repeat: Up
Home Values Are Up. Repeat: Up
Would you believe that home values are up? According to a BusinessWeek Online article they are.
Here’s a snippet:
“According to Zillow.com, home values rose 4.8% in the third quarter in the 36 major metropolitan areas covered by its Zindex. That may come as a surprise if you’ve been reading about falling sales prices, but there’s a good explanation for the discrepancy. I think that while Zillow’s number may make things look a little better than they really are, the median sales price numbers from the Census Bureau and the National Assn. of Realtors probably make things look a little worse than they really are.
Obviously one difference is that the Zindex covers just 36 metro areas, not the whole country. But the more interesting difference is that Zillow’s index includes updated estimates of the values of all homes in an area, not just the ones that were sold. That’s important because the sales price indexes can be skewed by changes in the mix of homes sold in a period. If for some reason there are relatively few high-priced homes sold during a quarter, that will skew a sales price median downward.”
Something to consider with all the doom and gloom and bubble bursters out there