Topic: Market Commentary

Home sales continued to surge this month with the approaching home buyer tax credit closing deadline (Buyers wanting to take advantage of the first-time home buyer tax credit had to close by June 30th). But the big question on the minds of many when I posted on the topic earlier this month was: Will home buyers realistically have enough time to close?

The National Association of Realtors published their existing home sales report for February last week.  

Though existing home sales declined 0.6% from the January numbers, they were still 7% higher than last February.  The annualized rate is 5.0 million.  The decline was partly blamed on the February storms that shut down some of the hottest markets on the East coast.

The top story this week from Realty Times is that there are "solid indications" that not only is the real estate market recovering but that it will recover faster than the rest of the economy.

There is encouraging new evidence that the floundering housing market has begun to rebound. A proverbial “perfect storm” of favorable home buying conditions, particularly for first-time home buyers, is spearheading a buying surge in a seller’s market.

According to the latest survey from the National Association of Realtors, home sales are up in all four major regions of the country. In October alone, sales of single family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and co-ops swelled by 10%, and are currently 24% higher than just one year ago.