Understanding Home Sales Statistics

When the National Association of Realtors or Zillow quote homes sales statistics, they are often listed as various categories without explaining what the categories are or giving a definition of the category they are listing.  So here are all the various categories and their definitions.

  1. Pending Home Sales. Tracks the sale of homes for which a contract has been signed but the sale has not yet closed escrow; that is, a contract has been signed by the seller & buyer, an escrow account has been opened to facilitate the sale, but the title has not yet transferred from the seller to the buyer (escrow has not closed).
  1. Existing Home Sales. The Existing-Home Sales data measures sales and prices of existing, already built, single-family homes for the nation overall that have already closed escrow; that is, the title has already transferred from the seller to the buyer. These figures include condos and co-ops, in addition to single-family homes. The data usually contains current sales rates, actual totals and median prices by month going back 12 months, annual totals for three years, and Includes all existing-home sales — single-family, condos and co-ops — rolled into monthly and annual totals.

You can find data for both of these at the National Association of Realtors website: http://www.realtor.org/research-and-statistics/housing-statistics

  1. Another category is New Home Sales. These are newly constructed homes that have closed escrow. Various sources compile data on new home sales and they are usually listed as monthly totals.  Here are several sources:

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/new-home-sales

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-new-home-sales-fell-7-6-in-august-1474898673

https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/index.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-idUSKCN11W1KH

Another category that is also tracked by various sources is that of Building Permit Applications; that is, building permits applied for but houses not yet built.  The Census Bureau tracks building permits:

http://www.census.gov/construction/bps/

 

Do Condominiums Need to be Surveyed?

Recently I received this question: “Do Residential condominiums require a survey like gated community homes?”  The question actually requires answers on a couple of levels.  First of all, I have to assume the question is referring to the time when a condominium is being sold.  Hawaii is an escrow state; so we refer to that time period as “in escrow”.  For information on escrow, see my April 4, 2015 blog “Hawaii Property Purchase, Contract Status and Escrow”.

So I’ll rephrase the question thusly: “When a condo sells, during the escrow process, is there a contractual obligation on the part of the seller to do a survey?  Answer: No, condominiums do not need to be surveyed.  The property lines around the perimeter of a condo project will include all the common area, parking lot, pool, etc. and all the buildings on the land.  How would you survey an individual condominium unit within a building?  So no, condominiums are not surveyed when they sell.

Now I have to ask: “Why did the person asking the question think only residences in gated communities would need a survey”?  When single family residences, farms, raw land and the like sell, they are usually surveyed while in escrow.  But a survey is never actually “required”.  During a sale, a survey is an option a buyer can ask for.  The seller has to pay for it and they can refuse.  If the seller refuses, the buyer can pay for their own survey, but run the risk of putting out the money only to have the deal fall apart for some reason.  In situations where the seller doesn’t want to pay for a survey, I try to get them to do the survey and add the cost on to the sale price.  That way, if the deal falls apart, the buyers isn’t out anything and the seller has a survey they can use for the next buyer.