While analysts were expecting an annualized existing home sales level between 5.37 million and 4.6 million homes, the numbers came in much lower than that. The seasonally adjusted number was 3.83 million, down 27.2 percent.
The combination of the tax credit expiration that pulled forward summer sales, a tough credit market, and unemployment hovering around 10 percent was enough to stop the nations home buyers in their tracks.
NAR economist Lawrence Yun expects home sales to rebound towards the end of the year and get back to the 5.0 million level, but for agents and brokers who expect the summers to be their busy time of the year, this report will be a tough pill to swallow.
Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, dropped 27.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units in July from a downwardly revised 5.26 million in June, and are 25.5 percent below the 5.14 million-unit level in July 2009.
Sales are at the lowest level since the total existing-home sales series launched in 1999, and single family sales – accounting for the bulk of transactions – are at the lowest level since May of 1995. via NAR
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As the analysts says this is really tough time for the Real Estate industry and the reason behind this is high rise in prices of each and every commodity and unemployment of wide number of people. Some measures should be acquired by the government otherwise this situation will become more worse.
Yes, the expiration of the tax credit was a big reason for the sales plummet. Do you think they will be extending the tax credit or doing something similar to stimulate home sales once more? Thanks for the great blog.
The tax credit was a nice temporary boost, but it’s not something that should be used long-term. We really don’t want any more artificial crutches to the industry, like the zero down mortgage mess.
I’d be much happier with just a simple return to basic lending standards and stabilization in the market. Then it would be nice to see job growth, which is what the real estate market really depends on.
Didn’t we all expect this as a pure result from the end of the federal tax credit which compressed 2010 purchases to the first half of the year?
This can’t go on forever, can it?
I agree the tax credit was a nice temporary boost, I did notice an increase in business but that was only for a short amount of time. If something could be drawn up to get rid of short term fixes and, keep things up for the long haul, we all would be in a better place.
Issues like these may be unusual for some who work in the real estate industry. This is really helpful if you're dealing with different kinds of real estate transactions.