Trulia Trends: Asking Prices Up, Rents Way Up

• April 5, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

Courtesy of Trulia Trends

Trulia Trends, the analytical wing of the real estate website that goes by the same name just released its Price and Rent Monitors, indexes of home prices and rents across the country that aim to be a better barometer of changes in prices and rents than widely followed indices like Case-Shiller. A full explanation of Trulia’s methodology can be found here, but in short, they compared current asking prices and asking rents on a yearly and quarterly basis, adjusting for seasonal swings.

Nationally, the Monitors found that asking prices of for-sale homes increased by 1.4 percent since last quarter, while rents are now 5 percent higher than they were at this time last year. In the DC area, rents have increased 5.2 percent year-over-year; asking home prices rose by 3.2 percent over last quarter.

“Asking prices rose in February and March, but this doesn’t mean that the bottom is forever behind us,” Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko said of the national numbers. “The robo-signing settlement will accelerate the foreclosure process, pushing more homes onto the market and dragging down prices in areas that suffered most from the housing crash. Meanwhile, some relief is in sight for strapped renters as the wave of new multi-family buildings that broke ground in 2011 will be completed later this year.”

For more stats and analysis, click here.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/trulia_trends_asking_prices_up_rents_way_up/5376