NAR: EXISTING HOME SALES RISE IN FEBRUARY! Are Dropping Prices Beginning to Increase Demand?
2.9% INCREASE COUNTERS EARLIER ESTIMATES - HOMES SELLING AT 4.89 MILLION UNIT ANNUAL PACE!
In all the doom-and-gloom cable and web coverage of the pending housing market implosion, there is a glimmer of good news!
There was an INCREASE nationally in existing-home sales last month - the first such increase since last July! Are falling home prices really driving more on-the-fence home buyers to market? Or, is there still a sizable contingent of "wait until prices fall even further" shoppers? Most experts agree that falling prices will increase demand. But will that be enough to reduce historically-high levels of U.S Inventory of Homes for Sale?
A few more statistics, all courtesy of The National Association of Realtors -
Units sold fell 24% between February, 2007 and February, 2008
The Median U.S. Home Price dropped 8.2% in the same period - the largest annual percentage drop in history
$213,500 was the Median U.S. Home Price in February, 2007. It fell to $195,900 a year later (down from $199,700 in January, 2008)
U.S. Homes for Sale Inventories nationally fell 3.0% in February, 2008, to a 9.6 month supply. Supply was 10.2 months in January
Home sales rose 2.5% in the Midwest in February; the Northeast Region led the way with an 11.3% unit sales increase
Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for NAIR, is very encouraged with the unit sales gain. "We're not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing," Yun remarked.
No specific statistics are yet available for Chicago or the Chicago Metro Area.
Review more details, and view Mr. Yin on video, via Jeff Bater's article in today's Wall Street Journal.
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