Home Inventories Continue to Shrink
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Rick & Rick Strohm, Jr.
Driven by the first-time buyer tax credit, existing-home sales showed
another big gain in October with a strong uptrend established over the
past seven months, while inventories continue to decline, according to
the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – surged 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1
of 6.10 million units in October from a downwardly revised pace of 5.54
million in September, and are 23.5 percent above the 4.94 million-unit
level in October 2008. Sales activity is at the highest pace since
February 2007 when it hit 6.55 million.
Lawrence Yun,
NAR chief economist, was surprised at the size of the gain. “Many
buyers have been rushing to beat the deadline for the first-time buyer
tax credit that was scheduled to expire at the end of this month, and
similarly robust sales may be occurring in November,” he said. “With
such a sale spike, a measurable decline should be anticipated in
December and early next year before another surge in spring and early
summer.”
In the South, existing-home sales rose 12.7 percent to an annual level
of 2.30 million in October and are 25.7 percent higher than October
2008. The median price in the South was $151,100, down 6.3 percent from
a year ago.
Information about NAR is available at www.realtor.org. This and other
news releases are posted in the News Media section. Statistical data in
this release, other tables and surveys also may be found by clicking on
Research.