For real estate agents who hold a real estate license or a real estate continuing education—whether that’s a Texas MCE —that is definitely yet another bit of good news.
The Commerce Department reported that the January sales retreated 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted 321,000-unit annual rate. The December sales rate, meanwhile, was revised up to 324,000 units—significantly, the highest in a year. Despite the sales slippage in January, the housing market was on an upswing, with the month’s supply of homes on the market tumbling to 5.6 months, the lowest since January 2006. A 6-month supply is the gold standard, with higher readings signaling unhealthy price fall-offs. The new homes inventory on the market was the lowest on record.
Data in late February had home re-sales hitting a 1.5-year high in January. Confidence among home-builders was reported at almost a five-year high and builders were busy with more residential projects, all healthy signs of recovery. New home sales in January improved in two of the four regions, but declined badly in the Midwest and the West. The market for new homes competes with previously owned homes, which sell at substantial discounts due to foreclosures.
Also in January, a sign of market recovery that was hard to miss: signed contracts for U.S. home re-sales had climbed to almost a two-year high. According to the National Association of Realtors, an industry group, its Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on contracts signed in January, rose 2 percent to 97.0, the highest since April 2010. The December reading, meanwhile, was corrected down to 95.1 from the 96.6 that was reported earlier.
A group of economists surveyed by Reuters, meanwhile, said that they expected signed contracts, which lead existing home sales by a month or two, to rebound 1.0 percent after a 3.5 percent fall. Contracts signed were up 8.0 percent in the 12 months to January. Industry observers confirmed that a budding recovery is already underway in the housing market, with conditions appearing to balance in recent months as the inventory of both new and previously owned homes on the market contracted and foreclosures slowed down.
