The incidence of multiple offersrnhas led to shorter marketing time and approximately a third of respondentsrnnoted that 57 percent of properties were sold within 3 months and many in lessrnthan a month.  Only 20 percent of Realtorsrnreported selling houses that had been on the market for six months or morerncompared to 28 percent a year ago.  Thernmedian marketing time in November was 70 days compared to 98 days in Novemberrn2011.  Even the timeline on short salesrnwhile still protracted has dropped from a median of 119 days one year ago to 90rndays.</p

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About 22 percent of respondentsrnreported they had sold a foreclosed or short sale property and that cash salesrnaccounted for about 46 percent of those sales compared to 41 percent inrnOctober.  Distressed properties sold onrnaverage at a 20 percent discount and short sales at a 16 percent discount.  Discounts were strongly affected by propertyrncondition.  Those of above average conditionrnsold for a 13 to 15 percent discount while those in the poorest condition wererndiscounted 34 to 38 percent.</p

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Approximately 30rnpercent of respondents who made a sale reportedrncashrnsales in November with mostrnreported to be investors and internationalrnbuyers.  Approximately 9 percentrnof first-time homebuyers paidrncash,rncompared to 70 percentrnof investors who paid cash.  A sale to a first-time buyer was reported byrn30 percent of Realtors, well below the 40 percent share historically enjoyed byrnnovice homebuyers.  Respondents notedrnthat this reflects the difficulty in securing mortgage financing, delays withrnshort sales, and purchasesrnof lowerrnpriced propertiesrnbyrninvestors.  </p

Second home sales accountedrnforrn12 percent of responses (relatively unchanged sincernAugust) and 1.6 percent of Realtors reported salesrnof U.S. residentialrnrealrnestate to foreignersrnnot residing in the U.S. (1.9% inrnOctober).  Respondentsrnreported “lots of cashrninvestors from China and Canada”.</p

Approximately 37rnpercent of mortgage sales involved a downrnpaymentrnof 20 percent orrnmore (compared to 36 percentrnin October). Downrnpaymentsrnof 11-19 percent werernat 5 percent. The trendrnhasrnremained essentially unchanged since last year, in partrnreflecting creditrnconditions that have been generally reported asrn”tight”, “stringent”, and “difficult.”</p

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One of the mostrnfrequent concerns expressed in the survey was “unreasonably tight creditrnconditions“, i.e. that some financialrninstitutions appear to lend only to individuals with the highestrnlevelsrnof credit scores.</p

NAR says there appearsrnto be an unnecessarily high level of riskrnaversion.  Approximately 75 percent of Fannie Mae andrnFreddie Mac loans went to borrowers with credit scores over 740 in 2011rncompared to 40 percent in the 2001-2004 time period.  EstimatesrnbyrnNAR economists have indicatedrnthat an additional 500,000 to 700,000 additionalrnsales could be made if creditrnconditions returned to normal which could generate an additional 250-350 thousand jobs on an annual basis across a wide spectrum of the economy, i.e., attorneys, painters, plumbers, landscapers, title companies, furniture manufacturers,rnetc.; jobs that could be generated at no cost and almost immediately.</p

Realtors alsornnoted that appraisals continue to be a problem becausernvalues are not keeping pace with the appreciation in market values. Realtorsrncomplain that appraisers continue to use foreclosures as comps and they arernencountering out-of-area appraisers who do not know the local market.  They alsornexpressedrnfrustration at the slow turn-around time andrnappraisal requirementsrnthatrnarernan unnecessary expense onrnthe buyer.</p

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Thirty-four percentrnof Realtors reported a problem withrnan appraisalrnin the past 3 months (same asrnin September). rnApproximately 10rnpercent ofrnthe respondents reported that appraisal problemsrnled to contractrncancellation;rnabout 10 percent reported a delay asrna result of an appraisalrnproblem, andrnalmost 15 percent reportedrnthat the appraisal problems ledrnto lower prices.

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