Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
A home for sale in San Rafael, Calif.
By msnbc.com news services
Sales of previously owned homes rose to an 11-month high in December and the supply of properties on the market dropped to a near 7-year low, an industry group said on Friday, pointing to a nascent recovery in the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales increased 5 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.61 million units. November's sales pace was revised down to a 4.39 million-unit pace, previously reported as a 4.42 million-unit rate.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to rise to a 4.65 million-unit sales pace in December. Sales last month were up 3.6 percent from a year ago.
For the whole of 2011 sales showed a gain over 2010 totals. A total of 4.26 million homes were sold last year, up 1.7 percent from the prior year.
A?third straight month of gains in sales added to hopes that a tentative recovery in the housing market is starting take shape, but progress will be painfully slow given a glut of unsold properties that is weighing down on prices.
Ivy Zelman, CEO of Zelman & Associates, a housing-research firm, appeared on CNBC earlier to explain why she believes the housing market has bottomed and is the very early stages of recovery:
However, Jacob Oubina, senior U.S. economist for RBC Capital Markets in New York, reckons the ?foreclosure overhang? will continue to weigh on housing for some time.
?If you look at the report the supply fell, but what that doesn't take into account is the shadow overhang, the distressed side of the market, people that are basically delinquent on their mortgages and haven't gone through foreclosure yet,? he said.
?That pipeline is worth seven million units, and represents about 20 months of supply. The distressed is still a huge problem. When you look at home prices overall in the U.S. I think they're still going to decline modestly in 2012,? he added.
Reuters contributed to this report.
stephen sondheim los angeles news grammys 2011 mike leach mike leach billy graham scion fr s
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.