Home sales show slow progress
As expected, existing-home sales continued their slow rebound, increasing 5.0% in December to an annualized 4.61 million units. Fourth-quarter sales overall were strong, and the market finished out the year with 3 consecutive months of gains, resulting in a final yearly increase for 2011 of 1.7%.
"The pattern of home sales in recent months demonstrates a market in recovery," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. "Record low mortgage interest rates, job growth, and bargain home prices are giving more consumers the confidence they need to enter the market."
Total housing inventory dropped 9.2% to 2.38 million existing homes for sale, the lowest number since March 2005. That figure, representing a 6.2-month supply at the current sales pace, is down from a 7.2-month supply in November, reflecting the typical shrinkage of inventory in the winter. Home prices remain the major weak spot, with the median price declining 2.5% from its level at the end of 2010.
Homebuilding data are mixed
New residential construction projects in December were down 4.1% to 657,000 units (annualized). However, starts were up 24.9% over the past 12 months—continuing a trend of positive readings over the last 7 months. Multifamily-structure starts (including apartment buildings) pulled down the overall figure in the most recent report, but, on a brighter note, single-family starts, which make up a majority of housing starts and were hit hard by the housing downturn, increased by 4.4%, the best monthly gain since June. Total permits totaled 679,000, down slightly from November but 7.8% better than a year ago. In fact, year-ago comparisons have been trending positive for 8 straight months, indicating that single-family construction is finding its footing.
Posted at 09:23AM Jan 22, 2012 by Lori Kehoe in General | Comments[0]
