Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
The good news about the real estate market keeps coming! Don’t get too excited yet, I don’t know that the worst of it is over yet, not sure if the “fat lady has sang” yet or not, but at least the reports lately on the market have been encouraging.
According to the latest report released today from the National Association of REALTORS(R), existing-home sales in the second quarter showed healthy gains from the first quarter in the vast majority of states.
Existing home sales (including single-family homes and condos) by state rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million units in the second quarter from a rate of 4.58 million units in the first quarter. While an improvement over first quarter, the second quarter numbers are still 2.9 percent below the 4.90 million-unit pace from the second quarter of last year.
In all, thirty-nine states showed sales increases in the second quarter from first quarter and nine states had higher sales numbers for the quarter than a year ago. Read more…
Dennis Norman
By: Dennis Norman
Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) released its existing home sales report for May showing an increase in sales for the 2nd month in a row. This is the first time we’ve seen two consecutive months of sales increases in almost 4 years.
Sales for May were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4,770,000 homes which is a 2.4% increase over Aprils’ rate of 4,660,000. May’s rate is 3.6% below last year which is pretty consistent with Aprils year to year decline of 3.5%.
The Midwest region which has been holding pretty steady had a 9% increase in sales for the month followed by the Northeast with a 3.9% increase and the South with no change from April. The West was the only region reporting a decline in sales albeit a mere 0.9% decline.
Median home prices in the U.S. rose 3.8% from an adjusted median price of $166,600 for April to $173,000 in May which is 16.8% less than a year ago. The West was the only region that saw a decline in price from April to May with prices dropping from 204,200 to 197,700. The West has seen the biggest decline in median prices from a year ago with a decline of 30.6%, followed by the Northeast with a 12.5% decline, the Midwest at 10.4% and the South at 9.9%.
I’m going to repeat my recent mantra….overall I think the numbers show the market is trying to find a bottom and may be leveling off.
Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS(R) expected an improvement. He said “Historically low mortgage interest rates clearly drew buyers into the market and housing remains very affordable even with a recent uptick in rates. First-time buyers also are being drawn off the sidelines by the $8,000 tax credit, which is helping to absorb inventory. However, the increase in sales is less than expected because poor appraisal are stalling transactions.”
