By: Dennis Norman
Dennis Norman
Yesterday the National Association of REALTORS(R) released its existing home sales report for February and it contained some good news. According to the report existing home sales in the U.S. increased 5.1% in February over January although the rate is still down 4.6% from the same time last year.
The Northeast region of the country fared the best with a 15.6% increase in sales over January. However the Northeast region had the most sales to make up…In the January 2009 report the Northeast region had the biggest one year decline in sales at 23.8% below the prior year. After the increase in sales for February the Northeast still leads the country in terms of biggest one year decrease in sales at 14.9% but is headed the right direction. What doesn’t make sense is that the median home price in the region actually increased 10.6% to $251,200 from $227,000 the month before which puts prices in the past year down only 4.8%, the lowest of the four regions. This is contrary to my prior comments about the region, citing the increased sales in the west along with lower prices and suggesting prices needed to come down in the Northeast to stimulate sales. Well, sales have been stimulated and prices went up. Go figure. It takes a couple of months to really establish a trend however so we’ll watch and see what happens. Maybe the Northeast is going to come out of this better than the rest of the country?
The remaining 3 regions of the country all showed increased sales as well. The Midwest had the smallest one month increase at 1% followed by the West at 2.69% and finally the south at 6.1%. Of the four regions the West is still the only region showing an increase in sales from the year before at 30%. As I mentioned above, the Northeast has the largest one year decrease at 14.9% followed by the Midwest at 14% and then the south at 11.2%.
Median home prices increased slightly in the south to $146,700 from $143,300 in January but still down 10% from the prior year. The Midwests’ median price held steady at $131,000 the same as January and 7.8% down from the prior year. The west is the only region that showed a decline in median price. For February the median price in the west was $204,600 down from $215,500 in January and down 30.3% from the year before.
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