Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

U.S. Housing Market Sales of Existing Homes Slow Growth, Price Declines Moderating

Housing-Market / US Housing Jan 21, 2012 - 12:13 PM GMT

By: Asha_Bangalore

Housing-Market

Diamond Rated - Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleSales of existing homes rose 4.6% to an annual rate 4.61 million units in December, which takes the annual sales to 4.293 million units. Sales numbers of 2009 and early part of 2010 reflect the impact of the first-time home buyer program. The cycle low for sales of existing homes excluding the swings related to the first-time home buyer program was 3.77 million units for all homes and 3.39 million units for single-family, which occurred in November 2008. With reference to this benchmark, sales of existing single-family homes have moved up 21% in roughly three years.


The improvement has come entirely in 2011 because the gains and losses of 2009 and 2010 were largely temporary and induced by the first-time home buyer program. Sales of all existing homes moved up 2.5% in 2011 from the prior year, while sales of single-family existing homes advanced 2.7% vs. a 4.1% drop in 2010.


The median price of an existing single-family home rose 2.3% from a month ago to $164,500 in December, while the median price fell 2.5% from a year ago in December. The CoreLogic and Case-Shiller home price indexes (data available for November and October, respectively) and the price numbers from the National Association of Realtors show that home price declines are moderating (see Chart 3).



The seasonally adjusted inventory of unsold existing homes dropped to a 7.1-month supply in December from 7.5-month’s supply in the prior month. The supply situation of the last two months is encouraging because it has dropped below the historical median of 7.7 month supply (see Chart 4).



However, the percentage of distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) made up 32% of total sales, up from 29% in November, is problematic. Distressed properties are persisting at a very high level and the large number of homes with negative equity cast doubt on the duration of the improvement of home prices. Also, the National Association Realtors indicated in today’s report that 33% of realtors indicated contract failures because of declined mortgage applications and failures in loan underwriting stemming from appraised values of homes coming in below the negotiated price. These strong negative undercurrents in the housing market and absence of support from strong labor market conditions will continue to trim home sales in the near term.



Asha Bangalore — Senior Vice President and Economist

http://www.northerntrust.com

Asha Bangalore is Vice President and Economist at The Northern Trust Company, Chicago. Prior to joining the bank in 1994, she was Consultant to savings and loan institutions and commercial banks at Financial & Economic Strategies Corporation, Chicago.

Copyright © 2012 Asha Bangalore

The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Northern Trust Company. The Northern Trust Company does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein, such information is subject to change and is not intended to influence your investment decisions.


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in