Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for July showing that the fall-off in demand for residential real estate is continuing and occurring uniformly across the nation’s housing markets.Senior Economist Lawrence Yun is now suggesting that the weakness, if it were not for the mortgage-credit meltdown, home sales would “probably” be rising.
“Home sales probably would be rising in the absence of the mortgage liquidity issues of the past two months, … Some buyers with contracts have been scrambling when loan commitments did not materialize at the last moment, while other potential buyers are simply waiting for the mortgage market to stabilize.”
Additionally, NAR President Pat Vredevoogd Combs continues to attempt to persuade potential buyers to ignore the obvious dramatic housing correction.
“For buyers able to qualify for conventional financing, there are ample opportunities in the current market, … Availability and pricing of conventional loans are reasonable, and FHA-insured mortgage applications have been rising as low- and moderate-income buyers seek alternatives to subprime loans. If buyers are in it for the long haul, now can be a good time to get into your home.”
Looking at July’s Existing Home Sales report should only result in additional confirmation that the nation’s housing markets are continuing to experience weakness with EVERY region showing considerable declines to sales of BOTH single family and condos as well as significant increases to inventory and monthly supply.
Keep in mind that we are now seeing existing home sales declines on the back of last years fairly dramatic declines further indicating that the housing markets are not bottoming as many had been suggested last fall.
Below is a chart consolidating all the year-over-year changes reported by NAR in their July 2007 report.
Particularly notable are the following:
- Sales are down significantly in EVERY region and for BOTH single family and condo.
- ALL Inventory and Months Supply show significant increases on a year-over-year basis.
