Existing Home Sales Drop 8.4 Percent Nationally in March 2007
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Housing sales took a tumble in March due to the change in mortgage requirements, bad weather, and the continually slowing market. Sales were down 8.4 percent, making it unlikely that a rebound in the housing market will occur on a national level this spring as many experts were predicting.
What may happen though is that while the market is still trending downward, the March results are an outlier as the weather in March was terrible while January and February had better weather and an increase in sales. Also, while the subprime and Alt-A mortgage issues are still out there, many potential buyers may be waiting till things settle down and see what they can afford and if they are eligible for financing.
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell by 8.4 percent in March, compared to February. It was the biggest one-month decline since a 12.6 percent drop in January 1989, another period of recession conditions in housing. The drop left sales in March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.12 million units, the slowest pace since June 2003.
The steep sales decline was accompanied by an eighth straight fall in median home prices, the longest such period of falling prices on record. The median price fell to $217,000, a drop of 0.3 percent from the price a year ago…
There was weakness in every part of the country in March. Sales fell by 10.9 percent in the Midwest. They were down 9.1 percent in the West, 8.2 percent in the Northeast and 6.2 percent in the South. via Yahoo! Finance
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Comment by Vinny on 24 April 2007:
Florida is a disaster zone for Real Estate. I have a beautiful 2 b/2b Condo in Palm Coast, FL. less than 5 minutes from a beautiful uncrowded beach and the Intracoastal Waterway and 20 minutes from St. Augustine. It’s been on the market for 9 months without a single offer. Priced at $155,000, vacant, and in move in condition and priced lower than similar homes and early last year it would be gone in a week. Now the Realtors say the market is totally dead and the only properties they are moving are foreclosures that the bank’s are unloading. The same story in Orlando and all of Florida. The collapse happened nearly overnight after the ‘investors’ (who had hyped the marked to the max) had unloaded their properties. I wasn’t smart enough to see it coming, so I’m not whining. I hope I can sell my place in the next year or two because the Realtors have just about given up on Florida Real Estate.
Comment by Jacek on 5 July 2007:
When we are looking at the statistics everything looks so fine. The real market is much worse. I see properties in Chicago area starting in some areas from 100-150k when one year ago you could not find anything below 200k. When comes to new homes in my area 60707 builders are holding to past years prices keeping properties on the market in excess of 500-600 days. The only question is how long you can keep paying for empty home. The cycles in real estate have few years span so there is not real hope to get same money like before for homes sitting so long on the market. The drop in prices is going happen sooner or later regardless what some people (CNN) are wishfully thinking (see: Slim pickings for real estate vultures)