March Existing-Home Sales Fall
April 29, 2009 by Elad Bushari · Leave a Comment
Existing-home sales fell 3.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.57 million units from a downwardly revised level of 4.71 million in February, NAR reported this week. March sales were 7.1 percent lower than the 4.92 million-unit pace recorded the same period a year ago. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $175,200, down 12.4 percent from March 2008. Distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) accounted for slightly more than half of all home transactions in March.
Total housing inventory fell 1.6 percent to 3.74 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 9.8-month supply at the current sales pace, up slightly from the 9.7-month supply in February.
Existing-home sales fell in March from the prior year in three of the nation’s four regions: 22.5 percent in the Northeast; 11.1 percent in the Midwest; and 10.9 percent in the South. Sales rebounded 18.9 percent in the West, due largely to an increase in sales of distressed properties.
NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun took an optimistic view of the latest numbers and indicated that the market appears to be stabilizing. “The share of lower-priced home sales has trended up, indicating a return of many first-time buyers, which we also see in a parallel member survey,” he Yun says. “By early summer we should be seeing a positive impact on home sales from record-low mortgage interest rates in addition to the stimulus provisions.”
the Broker of Bushari Group Real Estate, a boutique luxury real estate firm specializing in the metro Boston area, Cambridge and Brookline. Elad believes in superb customer service and strives to exceed expectations at every opportunity. Elad was one of the top 30 brokers in the nation under 30 years old (Realtor Magazine, June 2009) and one of the top 25 Real Estate Agents in the metro Boston area in 2008 (according to MLS PIN). In his free time, Elad enjoys snowboarding, scuba diving and is an avid world traveler. Elad can be reached at (617) 529-7079.
