Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Mixed signals in the real estate market?


Third quarter results reported by the National Association for home prices and number of existing home sales see to send mixed signals. While is seems that prices are more stable, the number of exiting home sales have declined in some regions.

Seems that the Northeast stabilized the most in home sale prices. I know that Burlington VT, in my home state was the leader showing some appreciation. The other regions all reported a decline in home prices, although very modest in comparison to other reports over the last couple years.

In the midwest the median price dropped 3% from the third quarter of 2009. Home sales were 28.9% below a year ago in the third quarter. In the south home prices fell 1.9% and the west a very modest .4% drop. The midwest reported existing homes sales declined 16.4% over 2009 and the west slipped 20% during the quarter. Over on the year though, the drops are much less probably due to the favorable tax situation in the first part of the year which provided a stimulus for home purchases.

Although third quarter results are not where we all want them, we at CRS are optimistic in a rebound in activity in 2011 and are positioning ourselves for that.

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