Home Sales Jump 2nd Month

Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2½ years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit.

Home sales nationwide are now up nearly 37% from their bottom in January, data Monday showed, though they are still 16% below the peak in autumn 2005. At the current sales pace, there is only a 7-month supply of homes on the market and in some areas there are bidding wars.

So Cal Home Sales Rise

Southern California home sales rose in October. Shrinking inventory of homes for sale and government and industry efforts to stoke demand and curtail foreclosures helped prices stabilize. Last month 22,132 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. That was up 2.8% from 21,539 in September and also up 2.8% from 21,532 a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick.

“Mini Real Estate Boom”

Great news coming out on the real estate market.

The latest figures from the National Association of Realtors show that existing home sales were strong in September, which means that conditions have improved for five of the past six months. Last month, sales were up 9.4 percent from the level recorded in August, and also 9.2 percent higher than the figures recorded in September 2008.

“We’re getting early indications of price stabilization, but we need a steady supply of qualified buyers to meaningfully bring inventories down and return us to a period of normal, steady price growth and to fully remove consumer fears, which would then revive the broader economy,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

Home buyers returning to the real estate market

U.S. home sales rise 9.4 percent in September

Sales jumped 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million last month, from a downwardly revised pace of 5.1 million in August, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.

That pace was the strongest in two years and beat Wall Street forecasts. Sales had been expected to rise to an annual rate of 5.35 million, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

“There’s a mini-boom going on in the housing market,” said Thomas Popik, who conducts a monthly survey of real estate agents for Campbell Communications, a research firm.

West Leading the Way Out of Recession

Pending home sales rose 3.2 percent from June to July, with a surge in sales in the western U.S. outweighing declines in the Northeast and Midwest, the National Association of Realtors said today. Pending home sales were up 12.1 percent from June to July in the West and 3.1 percent in the South, but fell 3 percent in the Northeast and 2 percent in the Midwest regions. All four regions saw a year-over-year increase in pending home sales, led by the West (20 percent) and followed by the South (12 percent), Midwest (8.1 percent) and Northeast (4.7 percent).

California home sales have been up year-over-year for 13 months, and it seems to be leading the US out of the housing slump.

Home Sales Up 3rd Month in a Row

Existing-home sales rose for a third month in a row in June. NAR believes that prices may stabilize in many areas by the end of the year so long as inventories continue to decline.

Sales of resale homes, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 3.6 % from May to June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units — virtually the same as a year ago, NAR said.

“If we can keep the volume of sales above the level of new inventory, prices could stabilize in many areas around the end of the year,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a press release.

Robust Home Sales Crowding the News

Jump into any newspaper from around the country and you get the great news. This is from todays Google News with the search term Home Sales. I wonder if this will be remembered as the season of regret for the fense sitters, or new beginnings?

Bay Area: Silicon Valley home sales at three-year high

Southern California: Home Sales Increase for 12th Straight Month

Birmingham Alabama: Birmingham area home sales perking up

San Francisco Home Sales Hit Highest in Three Years

Kansas City-area home sales rise from May

US July Homebuilder Confidence Rises to 10-Month High of 17

Idaho:Treasure Valley home sales and prices are up

Portland :Uptick in Portland home sales

Sacramento: New-home sales see biggest growth in two years

Home sales in Brooklyn, Queens rise

New Hampshire : NH home sales rise in June

Canada June Home Sales Rise 8.7%,

Virginia :Home sales in Hampton Roads increase strongly in June

Home Sales Rose in May

Home sales rose for the second straight month and inventory got trimmed. Home prices still show much lower values from a year ago, but part of that is due to more transactions on the lower-priced homes and fewer on the high-end. The rise in the national median home price should not be viewed as a genuine price gain yet since most if not all of the rise could be due to seasonal factors of more families with children entering the market this time of the year and they tend to buy non-distressed homes at higher values.

In the Midwest, existing home sales increased 9.0 percent

In the Northeast, sales increased 3.9 percent

The housing  data

Pending Home Sales Rise Biggest Since 2001

Pending Home Sales Rise 6.7% / Third Straight Month of increase

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7%, to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2% above April 2008, when it was 87.5, the group said. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters (TRI) had expected the index would edge up to 85 from a reading of 84.6 in March. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001.

Pending home sales activity was greatest in the Northeast, where the index increased 32.6%, to 78.9, in April, 0.8% above a year ago. The only region that showed a decrease was the South, where the index declined 0.2%, to 93.0, 3.5% higher than a year ago. In the Midwest the index rose 9.8%, to 90.4, and is 11.1% above April 2008. In the West the index rose 1.8%, to 94.8, but is 2.9% below a year ago.

NAR’s Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions, and while the total number of existing-home sales is expected to improve, there will be sharp local variations. “The market has already bottomed in some areas, but this is an unusual housing cycle with some areas improving rapidly while others languish or decline,” Yun said in a news release.

Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer for future existing-home sales.

Paul Dales, U.S. economist for Capital Economics in Toronto, said i

“The pending home sales index has now improved for three months in a row, adding to the evidence that housing activity is finding a floor,” Dales wrote. Nevertheless, even if existing-home sales were to rise to 5.1 million, they would still be 30% below their peak. Accordingly, even if activity is finding a floor, it is at staggeringly low levels.”

U.S. homes rose at their fastest pace in nearly six years

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at their fastest pace in nearly six years in February, data showed on Monday, providing some good news for the recession-hit economy.

They rose 5.1 percent in February to a 4.72 million-unit annual rate, notching their largest gain since July 2003, the National Association of Realtors said. But about 45 percent of the sales were foreclosure or short-sale transactions. Small-town Texan realtor Rick Cumins is going to see a paycheck in April — his first since December.