Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for October again confirming, perfectly clearly, that demand for residential real estate, for both single family and condos, has now taken a new and substantial leg down uniformly across the nation’s housing markets likely as a direct result of the momentous and ongoing structural changes in the credit-mortgage markets.Terming the latest home sales results as “stable”, NAR senior economist Lawrence Yun steps up his preposterous attempts to persuade readers that, although the changes in the mortgage market have been significant and are having an impact on sales, this is merely a temporary situation.
“As noted last month, temporary mortgage problems were peaking back in August when many of the sales closed in October were being negotiated. We continue to see the biggest impact in high-cost markets that rely on jumbo loans, … Mortgage availability has improved as evidenced by much lower mortgage interest rates and a sharp jump in FHA endorsements for home purchases.”
Additionally, the new NAR president Richard Gaylord initiates his tenure without breaking the beat of his recent predecessors adding that some areas are seeing “strong” price gains.
“Keep in mind that home prices are up in 93 out of 150 metro areas, and there is a lot of confusion in the market from reports about national data. Broadly speaking, home prices in most areas are up modestly or fairly stable, … Areas with population or job growth are seeing the strongest home price gains.”
Today’s report provides, yet again, truly stark and total confirmation that the nation’s housing markets have now taken a new leg down with EVERY region showing significant double digit declines to sales of BOTH single family and condos as well as large increases to inventory and a continued explosion in monthly supply as a result of the collapsing pace of sales.
Keep in mind that these declines are coming “on the back” of last year’s dramatic declines further indicating that the housing markets are truly in the process of a tremendous correction.
Below is a chart consolidating all the year-over-year changes reported by NAR in their October 2007 report.
Particularly notable are the following:
- Sales are down significantly in EVERY region and for BOTH single family and condo.
- Prices for single family homes declined for EVERY region.
- ALL Inventory and Months Supply show significant increases on a year-over-year basis.
