HOME SALES CLIMBING
Pittsburgh-area home sales have been taking a turn for the better in recent months, and sale prices for existing homes continued to rise at a healthy pace in April, according to data compiled by REALSTATS, a South Side-based real estate information company.
April marked the seventh consecutive month of rising home sales in the metropolitan Pittsburgh region. The number of homes sold jumped 10.7 percent, from 1,734 in April 2011 to 1,919 last month. The average price of a home rose 10.6 percent, from $144,366 in April last year to $159,613 last month.
While the total number of home sales and average sales price in the region keep pushing higher, the existing home market is far outperforming the new home market on both counts.
The average price of existing homes in the five-county region that includes Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties rose 14.1 percent, from $131,246 to $149,724. However, the average price for new homes fell 10.3 percent, from $325,694 in April 2011 to $292,227 last month.
“We see in the existing home market a 14 percent increase in the average and median price, but I don’t believe it reflects a 14 percent home value increase in general,” said Dan Murrer, vice president of REALSTATS. “It doesn’t seem likely that your house today is
worth 14 percent more than it was a year ago.
“It’s more likely we are having greater sales activity in the higher-priced neighborhoods than the lower-priced neighborhoods,” he said. “That’s what’s driving the rise in the region’s average and median home price. People in higherpriced neighborhoods are better able to get credit.”
Real estate industry professionals say new home prices could be falling due to growing sales of less expensive newly built homes dragging down the average. First-time buyers are often attracted to townhomes, which are less expensive than detached single-family homes, although both are classified as new construction.
“In the last six months to a year there have been very few new housing starts in the move-up buyer market, which are houses in the $250,000 to $300,000 range,” said Howard Hanna, president and CEO of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.
“The nature of most new construction is primarily condominiums, townhouses and first-time homebuyer houses, which tend to be lesser priced,” he said. “The flipside is we see real demand for the move-up buyer who wants higher-priced new construction, which is not readily available to them.”
The region’s top three home builders — NVR Inc, Heartland Homes Inc. and Maronda Homes — combined for an April total of 76 units sold, up from 67 in April 2011.
Home sales for builders are still far below the 93 units sold in April 2010 when a federal homebuyer tax credit, which was offered for a limited time, was helping to generate sales.
Tim Grant: tgrant@postgazette.com or 412-263-1591.