Us property sales up 6 per cent in 2013

Photo credit: Michael Patrick

Sales reached an annual total of 4.62 million in the last month of 2013, according to CoreLogic, slightly below the 4.64 million recorded in the 12 months to 2013.

Nonetheless, December completed a positive year for US property, as the market recovery took sales to a total of 4.89 million from January to December. The total of almost 5 million transaction makes 2013 the best year for home sales since 2008.

December's activity was driven by re-sales of existing property, which jumped 12 per cent. Demand for new-build property also climbed 10 per cent year-on-year, while short sales dipped 32 per cent, continuing a shift away from sales of distressed property to healthy homes.

The figures follow data from the National Association of Realtors, which marked 2013 as the strongest year for property sales since 2006.

Distressed sales accounted for 17.4 per cent of December sales, a healthy improvement from last year, when they were responsible for 21.6 per cent.

"This shift away from REO sales is a driver of improving home prices, as REOs typically sell at a larger discount to healthy sales than short sales do," notes CoreLogic. "There will always be some amount of distress in the housing market, so a 0-percent distressed sales share is unrealistic, but the pre-crisis share of distressed sales was traditionally about 2 per cent."