Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for November clearly showing a dramatic new leg down in the decline of home sales and prices as the historic economic shocks of September through November work to lay waste to consumer confidence and sideline buyers.Furthermore, we are continuing to see stunning declines to the median sales price for both single family homes and condos across virtually every region.
The NAR leadership, which now includes their new president Charles McMillan, is continuing to become noticeably more pessimistic about the future while simultaneously turning to Washington for handouts as Lawrence Yun notes:
“The quickly deteriorating conditions in the job market, stock market, and consumer confidence in October and November have knocked down home sales to another level. We hope the home sales impact from the stock market crash turns out to be short-lived, as was the case in 1987 and 2001… It is, therefore, imperative to provide incentives for homebuyers to get back into the market. It also depends on how effectively Congress and the new administration can help facilitate the short sales process and unclog the mortgage pipeline – impediments remain for some buyers with good credit,”
The following (click for larger versions) are charts showing sales for single family homes, plotted monthly, for 2006, 2007 and 2008 as well as national existing home inventory and month supply.
