HomeFinder.com Real Estate News

The Phoenix real estate market continued to thrive in October, posting strong gains for home sales and prices.

According to DataQuick, a total of 8,837 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the Phoenix region, a 12.7 percent increase from the previous month. Compared to October 2011, home sales were 9.8 percent.

Additionally, the median price for these types of properties was $160,000, a 3.2 percent bump from September and 32.2 percent increase from a year ago. This marked the highest price in the market since November 2008 when it was $162,984.

According to a separate report from the W.P. Care School of Business at Arizona State University, the supply in the Phoenix area market improved in October as well. After seeing a short supply for many months, the market saw a 31 percent increase in homes available for sale in the past three months.

With more homes available for sale, an increasing amount of buyers may enter the home buying market, as they will be more likely to find a property they are willing to buy.

Despite many real estate markets entering a seasonal slowdown in the fourth quarter, Portland-area home sales were up significantly in October.

According to DataQuick, a total of 2,898 new and resale homes and condos were sold in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton metro area, a 9.4 percent increase from the previous month. On a year-over-year basis, sales were up 35.5 percent. In the past eight years, sales have declined an average of 1.4 percent between September and October.

Meanwhile, the median price paid for new and resale homes and condos was $229,900, a 1.1 percent bump from September, and 9.5 percent increase when compared to October 2011. This marked the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year jumps.

Many of the country's real estate markets have been able to avoid the winter downturn as a result of record low mortgage rates. According to Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, fixed-rate mortgage averages were slightly higher than all time lows in the week ending December 6.

The New York real estate market posted a strong month in October, but it could see a drop off in November as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

According to the New York State Association of Realtors, 7,839 home sales were closed in October, a 4.3 percent year-over-year bump. Through the first 10 months of the year, a total of 77,383 sales were closed, 6.6 percent higher than the same period last year. Additionally, pending sales were up 18.1 percent compared to October 2011.

The median sales price hit $209,000, up 2 percent from $205,000 last year at this time. This was the fifth consecutive month of annual bumps.

"Through October, the New York State housing market made solid progress and our outlook was for increased sales and median sales price growth trends to continue," said Duncan MacKenzie, NYSAR CEO. "However, following Superstorm Sandy, the massive housing markets in the federally declared disaster areas were essentially put on hold."

Despite improvements in October, Sandy added to the foreclosure problem in New York. According to RealtyTrac, October foreclosure activity increased 123 percent.