PTC Index for March

PTC Index – March 2014

The spring buying season was off to a good start in March with the PTC Index showing encouraging gains and losses in most categories from the month before. First, building permits remained unchanged from the month prior, settling at 258 filings; building permits are down slightly from a year ago by roughly 16 percent. Although new home sales are down by nine percent from a year ago as well, we saw a 21 percent jump from February. Existing home sales surged in March by about 44 percent from the month prior; existing home sales are up about 9 percent from March 2013. Refinance activity made its first increase since November, inching up slightly by 1.7 percent, though still down 52 percent from a year ago. The average sales price also made its first rebound since October 2013 climbing 3.3 percent from February 2014. Finally, both notices of default and distressed properties decreased in March from the month before by 13.7 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. In the year-ago time period, these categories are also down by 24 percent and 42.3%, respectively.

March 2014

Building Permits	258
New Home Sales	153
Existing Home Sales	680
Refinance	641
Average Sales Price	191027.5
Financial-Bond Market(10-yr Treasury)	2.72
Days on Market	66
Distressed(Short Sales and REO)	1063
Notices of Default	139
PTC Index	168

For comparison, index was 130 in January and 132 in February.