FEATURED ARTICLE

New-home Sales Surge 27% to 411,000 Pace

Boosted by a soon–to–expire tax break, low mortgage rates and favorable weather, sales of new homes surged 27% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 after hitting a record low in February, according to Commerce Department estimates released Friday.

It was the largest percentage gain in sales since April 1963, the government said. It was the highest sales pace since July, and much stronger than the 335,000 expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. See our complete economic calendar and consensus forecast.

Sales in December, January and February were revised higher. In February, sales were revised to a 324,000 annualized pace, up from 308,000. It´s still the lowest on record, dating to 1963.

Sales are up 24% compared with March 2009, but are down 70% from the peak in 2005.

Government statisticians have low confidence in the monthly report, which is subject to large revisions, and large sampling and other statistical errors.

In most months, the government isn't sure whether sales rose or fell. The standard error in March, for instance, was plus or minus 21.1%. Read More...

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Homekeys instantly identifies the “undervalued properties” by displaying search results comparing the “list value” with the “estimated value”.

Boca Raton
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Top Ten Condo/Townhomes in Boca Raton under $300k
Ft. Lauderdale
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Top Ten Condo/Townhomes in Ft. Lauderdale under $300k
West Palm
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Top Ten Condo/Townhomes in West Palm under $75k
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How to Interpret the Estimated Values

Each week we will be featuring a new tip to help you take full advantage of the tools Homekeys has to offer. This week's tip is "How to Interpret the Estimated Values." If you have any suggestions about tips you'd like to see, feel free to Contact Us.

Homekeys has a feature called AVM, Automated Value Model. ValueSearch® calculates estimated values using historical sales data, property information and market analysis. Select a property then look at the Estimated Value tab. The Historical Sales Summary will show you the average, minimum, median, maximum and estimated values. Those numbers came from data collected from the Historical Sales Information. The Historical Sales Information is made up of the top ten properties that are most comparable to your target property. If you look below the list of properties you can see how far the system had to go to find comparable sales information.

Below the Historical Sales Information is the Active Comparable Listings Information. This is information gathered from other properties for sale that are comparable to your target property. This is very useful information for both buyers and sellers. For buyers, these are other listings you may be interested in, and for sellers, this is the competition that you’re up against in the area. Again, you can see how far from the target property the system had to go to get these comparables. You have the option to view a printer friendly version of this page as well.

You can view more information on any comparable by selecting it from the list and then choosing property details, aerial view, comparables or estimated value. Or, by clicking on the Comparables tab, you can view the map markers for the Comparable Sales and Comparable Listings. Below the map is a list of the comparable properties. You can switch the list from comparable sales to comparable listings by clicking their respective buttons below the list. When you click on a comparable (either the marker or from the thumbnail list) the map will center on that property and an informational window will pop up giving you the option to view even more details.

If you’d like to print out the list of comparables, we provide a printer friendly version of this page if you click the Print Friendly button, located below the list.

For more search help, visit our Video Tutorials page

Next week's tip - How to Save Search Parameters and Listings