Monday, March 23, 2009

Great News! Existing Home Sales Up 5.1% in February 2009


Great News to all those that are are watching the Real Estate Market in Texas!


Fox News Business reports today, March 23rd, that Existing Homes Sales are up nationally 5.1% and up 6.1% in the South!


Take a look at the homes we are highlighting this month at The O'Dea Moyers Group at www.TheSingularSolution.com or contact us at 972-464-4100. See you there!


Fox News



The number of existing homes sold in February unexpectedly rose last month, an industry trade organization said Monday, as distressed home sales continued to remain the dominant force in the nation’s impaired housing market.


According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of homes sold rose 5.1% to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 4.72 million units in February up from 4.49 million annualized units.
The jump in sales was much better than what economists had predicted, who were expecting existing home sales to fall to 4.45 million units. The data helped boost stocks broadly, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 300 points.


While the increased sale of homes is a welcome sign to Wall Street -- as many believe that the housing will eventually lead the nation’s economy out of this recession -- the bulk of February’s sales were distressed purchases. The average price for a home sold was $165,400, down 15.5% from a year ago.


“Because entry level buyers are shopping for bargains, distressed sales accounted for 40% to 45% of the transactions in February,” said NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun in a statement.
As it has been for the past couple months, existing home sales were stronger in the West than the rest of the nation -- primarily in the struggling housing market of California. Existing home sales in the region were up 2.6% from a month ago to 1.2 million annualized units, and are up 30.4% from a year ago.


In the Northeast, sales rose 15.6% to an annualized rate of 740,000 units and are down 14.9% from a year ago. In the Midwest, sales were basically flat -- up 1% -- to 1.04 million units.
In the struggling Southern market, existing home sales rose 6.1% to an annualized rate of 1.74 million units, according to the trade organization.