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Home Sales Plummet Below Expectations

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Home sales dropped far below expectations on Wednesday, indicating the housing market downturn is far from over.

Existing home sales fell 5.3% against expectations for a 1.1% increase. December's 6.5% rise was downwardly revised to +4.4%.

 

Sales of single-family homes fell 4.7% against a 4.7% increase in December, while sales of condos fell 10.2% against a 1.9% increase the month prior.

The average price of a single-family home in January was $212,400.

By Megan Ainscow and edited by Sarah Sussman
©CEP News Ltd. 2009

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Bobby Downey  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
Here is a question for everyone in here. What would entice you to purchase a home? We have the tax credit, depressed prices, and low interest rates. What else could you want as a potential home buyer? Builders in my area are offering crazy incentives, below market rates of 4.25%, and still cannot move product. So I put it to the think tank in here. What is missing?
Ryan Peterson  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
Wife & I have been trying to buy a house for over a month now. Appraisal value not meeting asking price has killed 2 deals for us so far, knocking them out of escrow. We're starting to lose hope anything in the Phoenix market will appraise near what people are demanding for their homes.
Julie Driver  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
This is a fantastic time to be a first-time home buyer. I think the real problem is that many (if not most) of us have homes that we'd have to sell first. And therein lies the problem...
Mike B  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
Not for Ryan.. he's in the worst part of the nation for buying. Hope things turn around for him.
Scott Niklawski  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
I think Julie is right on the money with her response. Couple more things that I would add to reasons why less people are buying... 1. Fear that we're not at the bottom, why buy when you can wait and get the house for less - especially if the gov't is pushing for lower rates. 2. Down payment - who has one of those? Lot's of people either haven't saved enough or the equity they would roll into that house is gone. 3. Investors can't snap up 10 properties like they used to, it's gotta be cash now, a max of 4 financed properties crushes the investor pool. That's my thought anyway.
Bobby Downey  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
I want to continue this thread...hopefully get some more input...the concerns are valid....where is the bottom and will we hit it? You won't know until we are on the upswing and looking backwards so anyone trying to peg that is crazy...Down payment is tough...we need to foigure out how to apply the tax credit to the down payment for 1st time buyers...I guarantee someone is working on it...investors will get back in the market now that Fannie is going back to old guidline of ten properties....Ryan go to the big banks REO websites....Suntrust has several AZ porperties listed....you need a foreclosure or a bank willing to short sale which should not be that hard to find in your market...if you are working with a realtor she should be doing a better job of finding a property that will work for you....like Number 5 in Short Circuit we need more input here....
Ryan Peterson  |  Contact or Connect with this Member
on
We've mostly stayed away from short sales after comparing experiences with others in our market (2-3+ months turntime to get an initial response) and foreclosures (many here are in bad shape). Our trouble is nobody knows what anything is worth until the official appraisal comes in, which for us both times was too low for the sellers to stomach (both longtime homeowners who bought years before the bubble). Maybe short sale is our only option if our current negotiation with another seller/home falls through.
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