Housing prices slide in Pittsburgh region (York, Crafton: for sale, real estate market, foreclosures)

[tyovan4]

Short sales and foreclosures increased in the Pittsburgh region through the first three months of 2016 and contributed to a slide in overall home prices in March, countering a national trend, according to Realty Trac data released Wednesday.

Distressed sales — foreclosures, short sales and bank-owned homes — in the seven-county Pittsburgh metro area jumped 1.9 percentage point to 13.7 percent of total home sales. That contributed to a 4 percent decline in Pittsburgh area home prices in March.

Pittsburgh is still a relatively healthy housing market, experts said, but it is headed in the opposite direction from the rest of the United States.

Nationwide, distressed sales declined 2.6 percentage points to 18.2 percent of total sales in the same period. And home prices increased 11 percent in March.
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Housing prices slide in Pittsburgh region | TribLIVE

I'm not too up on the real estate market or on macroeconomic trends. Could this be the beginning of a trend, with the growth of the real estate bubble here slowing down? Or is this more of a statistical anomaly due to strategic moves by banks?

Curious for more enlightened opinions

[PghYinzer]

Not sure if it makes me more enlightened but I just read the whole article...

"Many cities that saw increases in distressed sales were in judicial foreclosure states, including Pennsylvania, where foreclosures are handled in the court system and can take longer to complete. New York City, Buffalo and Boston also had more distressed sales from a year ago.

Foreclosures and short sales remain a smaller share of the Pittsburgh market than the national average. Distressed sales were 13.7 percent of all home sales in Pittsburgh, compared to 18.2 percent nationally.

New foreclosure filings in Allegheny County have been declining for the last four years, said Dan Sullivan, a foreclosure prevention specialist with Action Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing advocate.

He said Pittsburgh generally lags other housing market trends and may be going through a period of uptick in foreclosure sales that other cities have already experienced.

“Our mortgage market, it's a slower, less severe curve,” Sullivan said. “We're always kind of reacting a little bit slower and not as severe as the national trends.”

Seems like our uptick in foreclosures is actually just houses previously taken by the bank finally working their way through the slower process in our state. New foreclosures are down so I wouldn't be too concerned with this.

[selltheburgh]

What do they define as the Pittsburgh market? The county or the entire region?

[Paul2421]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

What do they define as the Pittsburgh market? The county or the entire region?

I would be interested in your outlook.

[jea6321]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

What do they define as the Pittsburgh market? The county or the entire region?

My guess is they are using the MSA, and that would obviously have very little similarity if you look at just the city proper or even allegheny county.

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by Paul2421

I would be interested in your outlook.

Obviously the entire eastern part of the city has prices on the rise.

It is often hard to say that prices are truly increasing because the same house doesn't sell multiple times without any improvements on the open market within a year or two. I've seen a few in the past that sold again within a year or 2 without any improvements and they increased by an annual rate of 8 or 9% or so. Lawrenceville and Morningside have 2 that come to mind.

There are houses that have gone up by hundreds of thousands, but the sellers put 100k or so into them, so that's not a good measurement of value increase because it is then no longer comparing the two exact same properties.

I've seen prices increase on the Northside at a steady rate. Southern neighborhoods as well to some degree.

Then again, the city declined for decades and has been playing catchup since the 80s.

I can't really comment on the suburbs. I've heard some are strong. I bet even the soft ones aren't that soft.

Obviously there are declining areas that bring general stats down. There's the entire mon valley that isn't thriving as well as other former industrial / mill / steel towns that are no longer workforce centers.

[okaydorothy]

Houses here in South Fayette seem to be fast to sell. I have noticed homes that just went for sale, within a few weeks have a sold sign.

[Goodjules]

Prices seem stable here in Crafton. Slow but steady appreciation in the three years I've lived here.