Austin TX and USA home sales data drops
Existing-home sales fell from December to January but were still above year-ago levels, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Friday. NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun said the monthly decline was discouraging and raises concern about the strength of a recovery. According to NAR, existing-home sales declined 7.2 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million units last month.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said most of January’s sales were based on contracts from November and December. He explained that potential buyers who got into the market after the homebuyer tax credit was extended in November have only recently started to offer contracts, and due to the delay between shopping and closing, it will take a couple of months to complete those deals.
“Still, the latest monthly sales decline is not encouraging and raises concern about the strength of a recovery,” Yun said.
NAR reported that existing-home sales varied by region. The smallest month-to-month decrease was seen in the West, where sales declined 5.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.28 million. The most notable monthly drop was in the Northeast, where sales plummeted 10.9 percent to an annual pace of 820,000. However, sales in this region were 22.4 percent above January 2009 levels, marking the largest year-over-year increase.
At the end of January, total housing inventory fell 0.5 percent to 3.27 million existing homes available for sale. Due to the current sales pace, this represents a 7.8-month supply of backlogged homes, up from a 7.2-month supply in December. On a year-over-year basis, this inventory has plummeted 9.6 percent and is at its lowest level since March 2006.
“Activity should be picking up strongly in late spring as buyers take advantage of the tax credit, which is critical to absorb distressed properties reaching the market and to continually chip away at inventory,” Yun said. “With a downtrend in the number of homes on the market, especially in the lower price ranges, values are beginning to firm but with great variance around the country.”
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