PrintLast year’s home buying season continued through the balance of 2011 and though January, according to RE/MAX, which reported yesterday that sales have risen seven straight months.
January sales were up 3.4 percent over a year ago but year-over-year. Of the 53 metros covered in the RE/MAX National Housing Report, 20 saw double digit jumps in sales over last year and a total of 36 markets saw sales increase in January.
However, January also was the 17th straight month to register year over year price declines. Prices were down only 0.8 percent from last year but they fell 3.4 percent from December. Fifteen metros showed annual price increases, including Florida markets: Miami, up 23.8 percent, Orlando, up 15.8 percent and Tampa, up 15.6 percent.
Inventories were down 24.1 percent from a year ago and down 4.2 percent from December. Mo th-th0-month inventories have fallen every month for 19 consecutive months and the resulting months supply is 7.3 months, compared to 7.8 months in December and 10.1 months in January 2011. A six months supply is considered a balanced market.
Average days on market in January was 103 days, which is five days higher than the 98-day average in December and 4 days higher than in January 2011. Only two months in 2011 saw a DOM average below 90 days.
“This positive start to the year will hopefully set the tone for a continuing housing recovery that’s drawing home buyers with low interest rates and low prices,” said Margaret Kelly, CEO of RE/MAX, LLC. “If sales continue ahead of last year’s pace and inventory does not increase significantly, we could start to see increasing home prices this year.”
March 7th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Chicagofinance,As far as I can see its pretty mixed here in Maryland. The wkirong half seems to be doing well and the other half has taken a beating.I have a brother that has cut his hourly wage by 50% and still can only find employment 30-40% of the week. I have another sister that is enduring her second lay off. Thats the wkirong class. The professional class seems to be doing pretty well or advancing in this environment but I worry how long that can hold up.Housing has been mixed also probably due to the factors just stated above. Housing in the wkirong class suburbs continues to erode/collapse but housing in the professional class areas are holding or even rising slightly. I saw a just reduced sign on September 7th on three acres in a great community. Went from 1.8 million to 890k in one giant step. Thats a 49% reduction from asking a year ago.This imbalance can only continue to happen for so long. Call it capitulation or whatever but I’m definitely seeing people be a lot more conservative as things progress forward.