Sales activity is rising in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, where there are high levels of distressed properties.
“Sales are rising only in areas with large numbers of distressed properties as bargain hunters take advantage of discounted home prices,” Yun said.
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Report: Existing home sales plummet in November
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Median home prices dropped by the largest rate ever and far fewer Americans purchased homes in November than projected as the financial turmoil on Wall Street reverberated to neighborhoods up and down Main Street.
The median price of existing homes dropped 13.2 percent to $181,300 in November from $208,800 in November 2007, according to a report Tuesday from the National Association of Realtors. Last month’s median price is the lowest since 2004, and according to the Associated Press, it is the biggest year-over-year decline since reporting started in 1968. The AP also said it is likely the largest drop since the Great Depression.
Existing home sales plunged 8.6 percent to an annually adjusted pace of about 4.49 million in November, from a “downwardly revised” total of 4.91 million in October.
Sales are down 10.6 percent from the 5.02 million-unit levels of November 2007.
According to NAR, existing home sales in the South fell 10.9 percent in November and are 17.6 percent off the pace of last year. Median prices have plummeted 10.6 percent to $154,500 in November.
“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,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a news release. “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.
Yun said in the release it is “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.”
Single-family home sales fell 8.0 percent, condominium and co-op sales plunged 13.0 percent, while the inventory of homes nationally increased 0.1 percent. The country now has an 11.2-month supply of existing homes on the market at the current sales pace.
Sales activity is rising in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, where there are high levels of distressed properties.
“Sales are rising only in areas with large numbers of distressed properties as bargain hunters take advantage of discounted home prices,” Yun said.
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