The latest batch of housing figures just hit the tape and boy were they a doozy …
* Existing home sales shot up 7.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.24 million units from 4.89 million in June. That was way hotter than the 5 million units that economists were expecting. It’s also the highest since August 2007.
* Single-family sales rose 6.5%, while condo and cooperative sales surged 12.5%. By region, sales rose across most of the country. They gained 7.1% in the South, 10.9% in the Midwest, and 13.4% in the Northeast. Sales dipped 1.7% in the West, by contrast.
* The raw number of homes for sale rose 7.3% to 4.091 million units from 3.811 million in May. But supply was down 10.6% from a year earlier. The months supply at current sales pace indicator of inventory held steady at 9.4. Single family inventory dipped to 8.6 from 8.9, but condo inventory climbed to 15.1 from 13.1.
* The median price of an existing home dropped 2% to $178,400 from $182,000 in June. That was down 15.1% from $210,100 in the year-ago period.
Thanks to relatively low mortgage rates, falling prices, and improved consumer confidence, the housing market is continuing to show signs of improvement. Existing home sales jumped more than 7% in July, the biggest monthly gain since the Realtors’ group began tracking combined condo, coop and single-family home sales in 1999.
Secondary indicators showed a bit of weakness, with the raw supply of homes on the market rising and prices dipping month-over-month. That will need to be monitored going forward, especially in the condo sector, which remains dramatically oversupplied. But the latest report adds to mounting evidence that the worst of the housing market crash is behind us.
Related posts:
- Existing home sales dipped 2.7% in August The August existing home sales figures were just released. Here’s what the numbers looked like: * Existing home sales fell...
- June existing home sales climb 3.6% The housing market data has taken on an improving tone of late. The June existing home sales report was no...
- May existing home sales climb 2.4% in May The existing home sales report for May just came out. Here’s what the figures showed … * Existing home sales...
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Existing home sales see largest gain in years
September number possible glimmer of hope housing bottoming out
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 3:06 p.m. MT, Fri., Oct . 24, 2008
From October 24, 2008: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27359725/
Well, the Ministry of Truth is out in full force again. The above article was written in October 2008. Let’s see, housing was bottoming then, resale homes selling above expectations, and now it is doing the same. Unemployment is not getting any better, I see no one in the stores, stores are still closing, restaurants are closing, and all of a sudden home buying is surging again (just as it was in the article above of October 2008, when the whole economic house of cards was crumbling around us). If you never believed in the Ministry of Truth, you better believe in it now. Home sales are not doing any better than they were last year. I still get e-mails in my inbox with houses advertised by realtors that are being reduced because they are not selling (and they would have sold in a matter of hours during the boom years). The only uptick has been due to the normal summer real estate buying season. No, the economy is not getting better. It is just being spun differently in the media. First-time homebuyers don’t have the financial resources to buy a house. I don’t believe it for a minute.