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Realtors: Sales of existing homes fall 8.6% – much worse than expected – as median prices suffer worst decline since Depression.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The number of existing homes sold during November plummeted 8.6% as prices plunged by record amounts, according to a closely watched housing industry report issued Tuesday.

The National Association of Realtors said that home sales dropped to an annualized rate of 4.49 million units. That was down from 4.98 in October and much less than the 4.93 million units projected by a consensus of industry analysts as reported by Briefing.com.

“The only region where we’re seeing more sales are where bargain hunters are taking advantage of distressed sale prices,” said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist. “About 45% of transactions, nationally, were of distressed properties.”

Yun blamed the financial market turmoil for the devastating report. For months, sales had hovered 4.9 million to 5.1 million.

“Today’s figure reflects the stock market crash that began in October,” he said.

The drop took place despite bargain prices as property values continued their decline. The median existing home sold for $181,300 in November, down 13.2% from a year ago when the median was $208,800.

Yun said that price drop was the largest the Realtors had ever recorded and probably the worst decline since the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, the glut of homes unsold expanded to 4.2 million in November. That represents 11.2 months of supply, at the current rate of sales, up from 10.2 months in October. Bloated inventories have barely budged over the past 12 months. Last November there were 4.27 million homes on the market.

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