SEATTLE, Jan. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Technology-powered real estate broker Redfin (www.redfin.com) today released its Real-Time Home Price Tracker for December 2012, showing home prices increasing 11.3 percent year over year while dropping just 0.4 percent from November to December across 19 major U.S. markets. Inventory plummeted 33 percent year over year, its largest drop in 2012. The report also showed:

Monthly and yearly sales volumes rose:

• The number of homes sold increased 3.4 percent from November 2012, with a 4.1 percent month-over-month drop. In total, 2012 sales volume was up 9 percent from 2011.

Home-selling velocity remained flat in December:

• The percentage of listings that sold within 14 days of their debut was flat at 27.5 percent. In all of 2012, 26 percent of listings were under contract within 14 days, while just 17 percent of listings sold that quickly in 2011.

This report is the earliest monthly analysis of home prices, sales and inventory across 19 U.S. markets, published weeks before any other index, based on the local databases used directly by Realtors to list properties and record sales. Click the following link to read the complete Redfin Real-Time Home Price Tracker. http://blog.redfin.com/?p=10407

Market-Specific Highlights and Lowlights:

Sales Volumes

• Boston saw the biggest gains, with home sales up 24 percent from December 2011.
• Inland Empire had the largest drop, with 17.3 percent fewer sales than last year.

Home Prices

• Phoenix continues to lead the nation's price gains with a 28.8 percent year-over-year increase.
• The market with the smallest price increase was Chicago with a 1.1 percent jump.

Inventory

• There were fewer than 160,000 homes for sale across the 19 markets covered.
  
• California continued to fare the worst in terms of diminishing inventory: Sacramento (-68.1%), San Francisco (-68.1%), San Jose (-67.9%), Ventura (-64.6%), Los Angeles (-61.2%), Inland Empire (-57.0%) and San Diego (-56.7%).
  
• Phoenix posted the smallest decline in inventory, with 5.2 percent fewer listings than in December 2011.

Selling Velocity

• California is home to the five fastest-selling markets, determined by the percentage of homes that sell within 14 days of their debut: San Jose (58.2%), San Francisco (49.5%), Ventura (45.7%), Los Angeles (41.7%), San Diego (41.2%) and Inland Empire (39.2%).
  
• California is also home to the slowest-selling market, Sacramento, where 3.5 percent of homes sell after being on the market for 14 or fewer days.

About the Real-Time Home Price Tracker
As a broker with access to dozens of Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) used by real estate agents to list properties and record sales, Redfin gets data within minutes of a sale, pending sale or listing activation, well before any government, media or analytics organization. Using MLS fields, Redfin is able to distinguish houses from condominiums and townhouses, which often sell for less money. To validate the accuracy of the data and to account for sales not handled by a real estate agent, Redfin compares MLS data with county records as they become available, using sophisticated algorithms to identify and resolve disparities about square footage or price for each address. Data at the local and neighborhood level are available in a spreadsheet, and the report methodology is available as an Adobe document.

About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate broker that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded and run by technologists, Redfin, has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not sales-people, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions. Redfin's online tools feature all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don't pay brokers a commission. The company serves 19 U.S. markets, and has closed more than $5 billion in home sales. Follow us on blog.redfin.com or @redfin.

SOURCE Redfin