WASHINGTON (February 22, 2012) – Existing-home sales rose in January, marking three gains in the past four months, while inventories continued to improve, according to the National Association of Realtors^Ò.

Total existing-home sales¹, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 4.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million in January from a downwardly revised 4.38 million-unit pace in December and are 0.7 percent above a spike to 4.54 million in January 2011.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said strong gains in contract activity in recent months show buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions.  “The uptrend in home sales is in line with all of the underlying fundamentals – pent-up household formation, record-low mortgage interest rates, bargain home prices, sustained job creation and rising rents.”

 “The broad inventory condition can be described as moving into a rough balance, not favoring buyers or sellers,” Yun said.  “Foreclosure sales are moving swiftly with ready home buyers and investors competing in nearly all markets.  A government proposal to turn bank-owned properties into rentals on a large scale does not appear to be needed at this time.”

Total unsold listed inventory has trended down from a record 4.04 million in July 2007, and is 20.6 percent below a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the West jumped 8.8 percent to an annual pace of 1.23 million in January but are 3.1 percent below a spike in January 2011.  The median price in the West was $187,100, down 1.8 percent from a year ago.

 The National Association of Realtors^®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries

Source: ReportsOnHousing
Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com’s latest study of the Orange County housing market shows the early 2012 home shopping season is a curious mix of rising buyer activity as the number of owners willing to test the market shrinks.

Snippets of the latest Thomas report, based on trends found in brokers’ MLS listings system, as of Feb. 16 …

• Demand grew in two weeks by 435 homes to 3,569.
• Last year, it wasn’t until March 31 that dealmaking hit this level.
• Thomas mixes his demand and supply math to create a “market time” measure that shows how long it would take to sell all homes on the market at the current pace of new escrows.
• This time, expected market time for Orange County is 2.1 months — lowest level since August 2005, or 78 months ago. It was 3.65 months a year ago.
• For homes priced below $500,000, demand is up 32% vs. last year with just a “blistering” — as Thomas called it — market time of 1.6 months.
• Active listing inventory actually fell 226 homes in the past two weeks to 7,597 — lowest at this time of year since 2005. “A drop in inventory during this time of year is completely unprecedented,” Thomas said. The number of homes for sale has fallen 29 percent in a year.

Thomas concludes: “For Orange County housing, the beginning of 2012 has proven to be remarkably robust. Demand, the number of new pending sales over the prior month, has been steadily growing, but the last two weeks have been extraordinary. … This is more than just an encouraging start to 2012, it is a real sign of a much different housing market.”

Many believe that very few houses are selling and that almost no one can get a mortgage. We want to let everyone know that neither of these assumptions is true. Recently, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Homes Sales Report. According to the report there are, on average, 12,109 homes selling in the United States EACH and EVERY DAY! That means that approximately 12,000 houses sold yesterday, approximately 12,000 will sell today and approximately 12,000 will sell tomorrow. So the thinking that homes aren’t selling just isn’t true.

Another interesting fact in the report was that 72% of these transactions were accompanied by a mortgage. That means that approximately 8,719 people qualify for a mortgage on a daily basis in this country.

There are over 12,000 homes sold and over 8,000 mortgages granted every day. The real estate market is doing better than many believe.