REAL Trends Housing Market Report – October 2010

Housing slumps in year over year comparison to tax credit fueled October 2009 home sales rate. Seasonally adjusted annualized rate of new and existing home sales falls to 4.327 million from 4.650 million in September

New and existing housing sales in October 2010 declined 25.4 percent from October 2009 while the
average price increased 8.2 percent from the same month a year ago.

The REAL Trends Housing Market Report for October 2010 showed that the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of the combination of new and existing housing sales decreased to 4.327 million from the 4.650 million recorded in September 2010. Overall housing sales fell for the fourth month in a row when compared to the same months in 2009. October 2010 unit sales fell 25.4 percent from October 2009. The average price of all sales increased 8.2 percent from October 2009, a positive point in otherwise disappointing results.

Housing unit sales for all regions fell in the last twelve months with the Midwest showing the greatest decline of 32.7 percent followed by the Northeast which saw unit sales fall 27.8 percent from October 2009. The West had the smallest decline at 19.6 percent.

Average prices of homes sold in October 2010 increased 8.2 percent compared to October of 2009 on a national basis. Every region showed increases in the average price with the Northeast showing the greatest improvement with a 12.3 percent increase in the average price of homes sold. The South showed the smallest increase at 1.9 percent improvement.

“These results were somewhat expected as October was the first month a year ago when a surge of home sales was fueled by the first round of tax credits. The annualized rate fell less than 5 percent from last month which is actually less of a decline than many expected. The average price of a combination of new and existing homes rose stronger than at any time in the last four months indicating that the mix of homes being sold is moving up,” said Steve Murray, editor of the REAL Trends Housing Market Report.

“The downside is that on a year over year basis housing sales continue to fall. We expect that the unit sales rate will continue to show year over year declines for the remainder of the year and into the first half of 2011 as the 2010-2011 results will be compared against sales that took place during the first wave of tax credit fueled housing sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first two quarters of 2010. The declines will be partially offset by improvement conditions in the overall economy.”
Indianapolis Real Estate