Kari McCoy's Real Estate Articles
HOME SELLING MARKET IN TRANSITION
The home selling market is in a state of transition. For months, economists have been saying the housing market was about to change course – from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market, and possibly from a value bubble to a bust. However, statistics and indicators do not currently point to a definitive direction to be taken by the market, according to a report issued by Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s primary buyers of existing home mortgages.
The Home Price Index for the fourth quarter of last year, released in March, showed an annual growth in home value at about 13 percent. Housing starts in January reached 2.28 million units, the highest pace since 1973. There are no signals of a cooling housing market here, the report stated. However, sales of both new and existing for-sale homes fell significantly in January, and inventories of existing single-family homes and condos rose to their highest levels since 1999. These contradictory statistics are signs of a probable slow-down.
“It may be some time before we see definite trends in the national housing market, especially as measured by changes in home prices,” the Freddie Mac report stated. “Prices tend to be `sticky’ on the way down as sellers will leave a home on the market longer or offer non-price concessions to buyers. The prevalence and types of seller concessions are difficult to measure. But we believe the housing market crested during the third quarter of last year and that single-digit growth in home values will occur nationally as this year progresses.”
Kari McCoy is a resident of El Dorado Hills, and owns the Kari McCoy Group, residential real estate of Coldwell Banker. Call her at 933-kari, email her at sold@KariMcCoygroup.com or visit her website at www.TheRealKariMcCoy.com
Copyright© 2010 Kari McCoy