"Simply stated"...

Sales of existing homes increased in February and remain within a fairly stable range, according to the National Association of Realtors®. 

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (1) of 5.03 million units in February from a pace of 4.89 million in January, but remain 23.8 percent below the 6.60 million-unit level in February 2007.  The sales pace has been in a fairly narrow range since last September.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the gain is encouraging.  “We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” he said.  “Buyers taking advantage of higher loan limits for both FHA and conventional mortgages will unleash some pent-up demand.  As inventories are drawn down, prices in many markets should go positive later this year.”

Read more from the National Association of Realtors®

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans sliped to 6.26% on weak consumer confidence and other economic worries.

Fixed mortgage rates are doing very well over the past week... 

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/13/real_estate/mortgage_rates/index.htm?postversion=2007091310

The Commerce Department said new home sales surged 16.2% in April, the sharpest climb in fourteen years, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 981,000 units, far better than forecast. Analysts were predicting that April sales would come in at an annual rate of 890,000 units, according to Thomson Financial.  This helped ease concerns over the state of the economy, and also caused a surge in early stock market trading.

In April, the median sales price of a new home fell $28,500 to $229,100 from $257,600 in March.  This is good news for first-time buyers and ex-renter buyers... it is a push for those selling a home and buying another in the same market area.  

Real estate group sees 0.7% decline in 2007, first annual drop since it began keeping track.

OOOOhhhhh.....sounds scary!

This means that over the past 40 years, the market has been up... and now we have a fractional decline... sounds like a great long term investment  opportunity to me!

Actually, these statistics provide a 30,000 ft view of "The Real Estate Market" across the country.  Of course it's important to track these data to determine their impact on the strength of the broad economy, but those who read my blog know that each real estate market is local!

The reality for you and me is that our local market has some very good values right now.  Find the Realtor in your local market who knows how to identify these properties and negotiate a reasonable deal between buyer and seller.  (What is 0.7% in actual numbers?... $500,000*.007= $3,500).  If you're buying a home to live in for more than 1-2 years, then this has no bearing on your purchase decision.  If you decide to rent, you'll throw away more than $3,500 in 2 months... that's just foolish!

If you're really worried about this issue, then call me.... I know many homes where we can negotiate at least 0.7% off the price. 

Read the full article here.