The good news: Home sales rise
The bad news: Homes on the market are rising, too. And prices are down. The housing problem won't begin to abate untl the inventory of homes for sale starts falling. See Jamie Smith Hopkins' story in today's Sun. The lede: "For every home that sold in the first half of the year, 10 more would-be sellers in the Baltimore metro area were wishing, waiting, hoping." From AP:
The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units. Sales had been expected to rise by only 1.6 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.Home sales were 13.2 percent lower than a year ago and prices were down dramatically. The median price for a home sold in July dropped to $212,000, down by 7.1 percent a year ago.
Despite the third monthly sales jump this year, the number of unsold single-family homes and condominiums rose to 4.67 million, the highest number since 1968, when the Realtors group started tracking the data.
That represented a 11.2 month supply at the July sales pace, matching the all-time high set in April.
Comments
Caught you in a typo: "For every hoe that sold in the first half of the year, 10 more would-be sellers in the Baltimore metro area were wishing, waiting, hoping."
I knew I should have diversified into rakes and spades!
Posted by: Farm-implement salesman | August 25, 2008 11:46 AM
I would argue that seeing a decline in the number of homes for sale would mean that most of the problems have abated, not that they are starting to abate. Problems will start to abate when foreclosure rates return to normal since this will allow lenders to confidently loan money to potential home buyers. That will allow inventory to begin clearing. However, while there are lots of homes on the market currently, there are likely even more in the "shadow" market that will be listed for sale as soon as things begin to improve. That will keep inventories high for a while, even if things are already returning to normal in mortgage financing.
Posted by: Mitch | August 25, 2008 12:07 PM
Isn't the year-to-year # what is really important rather than the month-to-month? -13% doesn't sound very good to me.
Posted by: rudy_d | August 26, 2008 12:37 AM
Isn't the year-to-year # what is really important rather than the month-to-month? -13% doesn't sound very good to me.
Posted by: rudy_d | August 26, 2008 12:37 AM