While not a surprise, the National Association of Realtors forecasting arm revised it’s forecast for home sales down to 6.04 million homes for 2007. The NAR is an advocacy group so they will always be predicting sunny skies and glorious times ahead, however their projections seem to be in a perpetual downward revision.

The National Association of Realtors may well do better for their members and future members if they worked harder on accuracy and less on advocacy. If the Realtors out there could trust the information coming out of the National Association of Realtors they could better plan what their futures could bring.

This year’s sales would be the lowest since 2002, when sales hit 5.63 million. Last year’s sales were 6.48 million. Next year, the trade group expects sales to climb to 6.38 million, up slightly from the forecast it gave in July of 6.37 million.
The forecast comes as delinquencies among borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit have risen dramatically over the past year, and other loans are showing weakness as well. “With fewer affordable loans available, that will cut back on some of the homebuyers who wanted to enter the market,” Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s senior economist, said in an interview. However, Yun projected that demand would rebound next year. via the San Jose Mercury News

More Voices:

• Michael Cook at Bloodhound Blog
• Keith at Housing Panic (funny the two agree although the presentation is a bit different)

Related posts:

1. First Time Home Buyers Account For Nearly Half of Home Sales
2. Housing Market Shows Stronger June Sales
3. Boston Real Estate Sales Coming Back – Are Yours?
4. Sales Up, Prices Down For December 2008
5. Where Are The Home Buyers?