The latest Case-Shiller Indexes from Standard & Poor's and CoreLogic – two industry analytics groups – show that in most of the country, property values are on the rise, which is great news for anyone interested in investing in real estate. However, despite CoreLogic reporting year-over-year increases in more than 90 percent of the nation's major metro areas, the watchdog group is wary that there could be a major momentum slowdown as the second half of 2013 comes to a close.
Standard & Poor's August indices found that there was an average price increase of roughly 12.8 percent over the month, while CoreLogic's latest data found home values jumped 10.1 percent during the second quarter. This is positive news considering that mortgage rates have begun to inch up closer to pre-recession levels of late, which normally works against property costs as well as sales demand.
This isn't the first sign, though, that the steamrolling pace of the housing market improvements may be grinding to a halt. For instance, sales recorded by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) have shown that momentum has declined for the fourth consecutive month as of September. In fact, the group's Pending Home Sales Index was down to it's lowest point in September, with a reading of 102.8, that it has recorded since December 2012. This also marked the first time in 29 months that pending home sales weren't above year ago levels.
The jury is still out on how long the housing market will continue to lead the nation in bouncing back from the Great Recession, as conflicting reports seem to be streaming in from all sides. Because of that, those with real estate investments need to look into asset protection and wealth preservation to secure their hard earned money is safe.