“As a Realtor, I have a vested interest in how the existing home sales numbers come out!”
Today, however, I think most of America is watching! Waiting to see how Wall Street translates the news this time… Most “experts” perdict a slight decline in numbers but this girl has faith that my profession has helped Americans invest in Real Estate wisely! Taking advantage of historic low interest rates on fixed rate mortgages.
Here are the facts I picked up when the news broke on the News channel CNBC, www.cnbc.com. Click—>Full Story from CNBC
“Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at their fastest pace in nearly six years in February, data showed on Monday, providing some good news for the recession hit-economy.”
Existing home sales rising…
Sales rose 5.1 percent in February to a 4.72 million-unit annual rate, notching their largest gain since July 2003, the National Association of Realtors said, but about 45 percent of the sales were foreclosure or short-sale transactions.
Economists polled by Reuters were expecting home resales to slip to a 4.45 million-unit pace, from the 4.49 million rate initially reported for January.
“Our analysis shows that distressed homes typically are selling for 20 percent less than normal market price, and this naturally is drawing down the median price,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.
The median national home price declined 15.5 percent from a year ago to $165,400, the second biggest decline on record.
Obama/Geitner: Working together to tackle economic challenges!
“While it’s good to see sales go up, it’s more important to see inventories go down. When that happens, only then can you start to talk about a housing correction,” he said.
The inventory of existing homes for sale rose 5.2 percent to 3.80 million from the 3.61 million overstock reported in January. That represented a 9.7 month supply at the current sales pace, unchanged from January.
The housing market is at the core of the economic and financial meltdown that has triggered a collapse in asset prices, severely damaging household wealth. Stability in the housing market is seen as a key ingredient for the economy’s recovery from a recession that started in December 2007.
The housing data added to the optimism sparked earlier by the unveiling of a U.S. government plan to relieve banks of money-losing assets to revive the recession-hit economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up over 2 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index were up over 3 percent.
Copyright 2009 Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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