Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Existing home sales up 23.5% year-over-year

The month-over-month change was 10.1%:
Existing home sales surged in October to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years, according to a real estate industry report issued Monday.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 10.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units, up from the downwardly revised rate of 5.54 million in September. ...

The gain was likely due to an influx of buyers looking to take advantage of an $8,000 tax credit that the Obama administration made available for qualified first-time home buyers, the report said.

The tax credit was scheduled to expire at the end of November, but it has been extended to April 30 and expanded to include more home buyers.

"Many buyers have been rushing to beat the deadline ... and similarly robust sales may be occurring in November," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.
Make money in 2010: Your home

But such a spike means December and early 2010 will probably see a "measurable decline before another surge in spring and early summer," Yun said.

Adam York, economist at Wells Fargo, agreed that "it's really a story of the tax credit, and a payback is inevitable." ...

The median price of homes sold in October was $173,100, a 7.1% year-over-year drop. Distressed properties comprised 30% of the houses sold during the month.

8 comments:

  1. What the hell can you buy for $173K? I dont even think you can buy an empty lot in the DC metro area for that.

    FL, AZ and CA are looking better and better by the day. When are prices finally going to correct here?

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  2. When all the people making more than us leave...

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  3. James - thanks for posting this. So many housing blogs have devolved from reporting all the news to just reporting what we would like it to be (falling sales, & falling prices).

    Glad to see there are a few "honest brokers" still out there in the blogosphere.

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  4. "When all the people making more than us leave..."

    They must have all moved here 8-10 years ago.

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  5. "FL, AZ and CA are looking better and better by the day. When are prices finally going to correct here?"

    Good luck getting a high enough paying job there to be able to pay for your home, even at "depressed" prices. Folks we are in an accelerated path downward and will stop when our standard of living is the same as rural China. Thank you globalism and Wall Street. The problem though is that China and gleeful globalists won't allow us to manufacture anything here even after reaching that point.

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  6. good luck to all as real estate market has slight change in commercial value, soon inflation will be recovered those are suffering from losses.

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  7. James, good stuff man.
    It is good to see that something is coming out of the Tax Credit Extension. This is just another sign that the country is ready to rebound!

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  8. hey i m agree with " 'Janet' who said... James - thanks for posting this. So many housing blogs have devolved from reporting all the news to just reporting what we would like it to be (falling sales, & falling prices). Glad to see there are a few "honest brokers" still out there in the blogosphere. "

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