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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: patron_anejo_por_favor who wrote (186388)	2/25/2009 10:08:48 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 306849

...or Pelosi That's some good incentive. Like having your mother in law move in with you. DJ US Jan Existing Home Sales Dn 5.3% To 4.49 Mln Rate .============================================================ Jan Existing Home Sales Jan Dec ! Consensus: ! Total Sales: 4.49M 4.74M ! 4.72M ! % Change: -5.3% +4.4%r ! Actual: ! Months Supply: 9.6 9.4r ! 4.49M ! ============================================================ By Jeff Bater Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Existing-home sales tumbled to a nearly 12-year low in January, and prices took a double-digit drop. Home resales fell to a 4.49 million annual rate, a 5.3% decrease from December's unrevised 4.74 million annual pace, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. About 45% of total sales involve distressed property transactions, including foreclosures. The median home price was $170,300 in January, down 14.8% from $199,800 in January 2008. The median price in December this year was $175,700. The January resales level of 4.49 million reported Wednesday by NAR was below Wall Street expectations of a 4.72 million sales rate for previously owned homes. It was the lowest rate since July 1997. The average 30-year mortgage rate was 5.05% in January, down from 5.29% in December, according to Freddie Mac (FRE). The NAR estimates the impact of the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan and lower interest rates to be about 900,000 additional home sales in 2009. The median home price is the lowest since March 2003, the NAR said. Prices are down so sharply because too many unsold homes are sitting on the market and the rate of foreclosures has gone up. Lower prices for existing homes have squeezed new homes out of the market. Receding demand and high inventories have forced builders to slash groundbreakings; housing starts last month were 56.2% below the level of construction in January 2008. As for new-home sales, the latest data show demand down 45% in December 2008 from the level a year earlier. Sales of previously owned homes, year over year, were down 8.6% from the pace in January 2008, Wednesday's report said. Credit has become harder for buyers to secure. Falling prices are also softening demand, as people decide to wait for a better deal. The stock market's collapse has eroded wealth. And mass layoffs are scaring people away from the housing market. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has shed 3.6 million jobs, including 598,000 jobs in January. Job losses and forclosures have sent people moving in with families, causing a slowdown in the household formation rate. "No doubt, the worsening economic condition is contributing to lower sales," NAR economist Lawrence Yun said. Wednesday's data showed inventories of previously owned homes fell 2.7% at the end of January to 3.6 million available for sale, which represented a 9.6-month supply at the current sales pace. There was a 9.4-month supply at the end of December. Regionally, sales fell 14.7% in the Northeast, 5.7% in the Midwest, and 5.7% in the South. Sales didn't change in the West. -By Jeff Bater, Dow Jones Newswires; 202 862 9249; jeff.bater@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: djnewsplus.com. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. (END) Dow Jones Newswires February 25, 2009 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT) Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 10 00 AM EST 02-25-09