Existing Home Sales 7.7 – With a 7.7% increase in existing home sales, there seems to be new life in the real estate market. Coming off of July’s disappointing drop of 3.5%, the 7.7% increase in existing home sales seem like a title wave of new business and hope on the horizon.
Don’t look now, but this could mark a serious turn around int the real estate market as the increase in existing home sales was expected to only be 1.4%. However, the news of the massive increase is being very well received and has the real estate investing, sellers and buyers rather excited.
Existing Home Sales 7.7
Existing home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors, went from 4.67 million in July to 5.03 million in August. The numbers were seasonally adjusted by the association. The expectations were no where near these numbers. In fact, the expectations were for the increase to be to 4.76 million, not the 5.03 million.
Andrew Wilkinson, Chief Economic Strategist at Miller Tabak & Co comments: “The rise in sales helped reduce inventory and according to the report it would now take 8.5 months to clear the existing stock of homes for sale rather than 9.5 months at July’s run-rate. A “comfortable” supply rate is seven months according to the National Association of Retailers.”
Personally, these are very impressive numbers. With inventory reaching levels that will only take 8.5 months to clear the existing homes on the market, it is possible we could be out of the woods soon as far as the real estate crisis is concerned.
This would be a major boost to the economy as a whole. It would stabalize home prices, in theory, put people back to work and give everyone a sense that it is going to be alright.
However, I am very skeptical to get excited at this moment. The talk of existing home sales rising 7.7% is great, but where does the foreclosures fall into this equations?
If you recall, the foreclosure process was haulted at various banks for a few months at a time and there are severe bottlenecks in the foreclosure process around the country, which could keep the number of existing homes from entering the market. This would definitely skew the numbers a bit.
At this moment I am not sure if we should be jumping for joy just yet. The economy still seems soft at best and US budget is still a mess with our debt growing ever moment.
I believe the future of this country, economy, and real estate market is bright over the long run, just not as giddy as most over these August existing home sale numbers…., but that could just be me. What do you think? - Existing Home Sales 7.7
It’s always hard to tell whether it is going to be the start of a huge upward turn. I think I agree with you that the results will be positive in the long run, but I am not thinking this is any sign just yet. It is nice to know that there was an increase though.
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It may be a signal we hit bottom and things are returning to normal. Although I think it is very much a buyer’s market and I would guess there is still a lot of foreclosed properties for sale.
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Any new is good news
I’m so tired of hearing about Greece and their debt problem. The stock market feels like a yo-yo anymore, so any improvement in any market sounds good to me
I hesitate to say that I hope things get back to normal soon, because normal has been a yo-yo. But I hope things improve, people regain their confidence (and jobs), and we’re able to move forward.
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We have had rising house prices for the last few years and they continue to rise. We are hitting the point where people can’t afford to buy a house because they are selling at too high a price. As much as this is good for the seller, it is not good for our economy. People can’t afford to invest in the local housing market. We either need wage increases or a drop in the housing prices to fix the problem.
Sounds like across the border though you all are on the upswing. This is good news.
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Sounds like you are where the US was a few years ago….watch for the fall out!
As far as our 7.7% I don’t really think it means anything until we have multiple months of improvement.
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I’m not sure I know what ‘normal’ is anymore. I don’t think prices will go back to what they were pre-crash because most homes were overvalued (i.e. bubble). Also, a very good point about foreclosure halts – just delaying the inevitable.
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This number is inflated by the foreclosures. Also, I am expecting this number to get adjusted. Although it could cause a short term rally in the stock market, I do think eventually the market will fall sharply again, but not as low as what we experienced back in 2008.
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