Home Sales Rises, Despite Flat Market
Posted:
Friday, January 13th, 2012
Category:
Real Estate License
Sales for previously occupied homes climbed in November, reported the National Association of Realtors, amidst a weaker-than-thought market. The group said sales grew 4 percent, riding a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million. That, however, is slower than the 6 million homes or so a year that define a healthy housing market. Still, it is better than 2008′s sales, considered the worst in 13 years. Those are encouraging stats for agents now going through their real estate CE—whether that’s New York real estate CE or Minnesota real estate CE—in line with their real estate license renewal requirements.
Sales have taken a dive in four of the five years since the housing bust burst on the scene in 2006. Despite record-low mortgage rates and falling prices, sales have remained largely weak and tentative.
Home construction, however, has started a mini comeback and is expected to boost the economy’s growth after 2011 is accounted for—the first year of growth since the Great Recession began in 2007. In November, builders posted an annual rate of 685,000 homes, representing a 9.3-percent bump from October, the rate’s fastest since April 2010.
Most economists maintain that home prices will continue to fall all through 2012, predicting that a price rebound should not be expected till 2013.
Currently, the median price of a new home is about a third above that of the one that’s been occupied before. Investors are taking advantage of the discounts.
Agentcampus.com, a leading e-learning portal for real estate CE, provides all the principal real estate courses and real estate continuing education that an agent needs for today’s market and the years beyond.
