Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for February which continued to indicate that home sales, despite the significant slide to median selling prices fueling speculative sales of distressed properties in the western region, are continuing to fall.Existing single family home sales were down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis while the median selling price declined a dramatic 15% over the same period.
The NAR leadership continues their shameless spin with their chief economist Lawrence Yun assuring homeowners of “traditional” homes that despite today’s reported 15% median selling price decline, home values have actually not fallen for them:
“Given the downward distortion in price comparisons due to distressed sales, it’s important for owners to keep in mind that this doesn’t equate to a similar loss of value for traditional homes in good condition,”
The following (click for larger versions) are charts showing sales for single family homes, plotted monthly, for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 as well as national existing home inventory and month supply.
Below is a chart consolidating all the year-over-year changes reported by NAR in their most recent report.
