Posts Tagged ‘sales’
Housing Perspective: May New Home Sales

Sales of new homes dropped in May, surprising analysis who had expected a continued strengthening in US housing market data. According to Bloomberg, transactions fell 0.6% from April, but median prices decreased by just 3.4% from last year. This compares to a much bigger 17% year-over-year decline in existing home prices, as reported yesterday. Data [...]

Housing Perspective: May Existing Home Sales

Home sales in May rose from April, the second straightly monthly increase. According to the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, purchases crept up 2.4% from the prior month, which was less than 3.0% analysis were expecting. Prices continued their decline, falling 17% from a year ago, dragged down by distressed sales. As readers of [...]

Keepin’ It Real Estate: Housing Recovery? What Housing Recovery?

By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. This week, 2 data points led optimistic market-watchers to declare the bottom in the housing is nigh: Indeed, one widely read trader-writer proclaimed, “The oversupply of housing that so plagues the market at present will be a figment of our memory a few months hence.” The [...]

Housing Perspective: February Existing Home Sales

If you bought a house in February, it’s a 50/50 bet you picked up a foreclosure. The National Association of Realtors released data this morning indicating almost half of all transactions last month involved a bank owned home. Sales jumped 5.1% from January, to an annualized rate of 4.72 million. Prices, however, continued to decline [...]

Straight Up Statistics: Deconstructing the Average

By AUSTIN NELSON In today’s fast paced, data-driven world, it’s easy to get lost in the morass of statistics flashing across our TVs and computer screens at a sometimes maddening pace. Government officials, bankers, retailers and snake oil salesmen alike throw out statistical arguments at the drop of a hat, telling you why their pitch [...]

Housing Perspective: October Pending Home Sales

By AUSTIN NELSON Nationwide pending home sales were down 0.7% in October, according to the National Association Of Realtors (NAR). Pending home sales are those under contract but not yet closed, and the index is viewed as a predictive measure of actual sales that will occur the following month. Month-over-month, seasonally adjusted data show the [...]

Housing Perspective: September Pending Home Sales

By AUSTIN NELSON The National Association of Realtors (NAR) posted its monthly Pending Home Sales Index for September today, showing a pullback in the gains seen in last month’s report. The index, touted as “a leading indicator of housing activity,” is based on signed housing contracts. These contracts are not counted as sales but are [...]

Housing Perspective: Existing Home Sales

This post first appeared on Minyanville. Put on those Rose-Colored glasses, it’s time again for the Existing Home Sales data: September sales came in 5.5% higher than last month, at 5.18 million (annualized) compared to estimates of 4.95 million Sales were 1.4% higher than last year — the first year-over-year increase in 3 years Inventory [...]

Keepin’ It Real Estate: Realtors Try Used-Car Salesman Tactics

This post first appeared on Minyanville. That glitzy McMansion you’ve always wanted may finally be within reach. Or not. If nearly 3 years of home price declines, historically low interest rates and a relentless media barrage of half-truths from the National Association of Realtors haven’t been able to stabilize home prices, it’s doubtful a gimmicky [...]