Existing Home Sales Up 2.9%
The battered housing market has some spring it its step, at least according to the National Association of Realtors. The trade group says sales of existing home sales rose 2.9% in April, from March, to an annual rate of 4.68 million.
There are some notes of caution here before we declare the housing slump over. Sales were still down 3.5% year-over-year. Most of the activity remains in the low price points. The percentage of first-time home buyers fell to 40% of all transactions, down from 53% in March. A lot of the activity is investors snapping up multiple foreclosed homes. Distressed properties represent 45% of the sales total.
Anecdotally I’m beginning to see and hear of more higher-end homes selling in my neighorhood in Los Angeles. The magic number seems to be under $1 million. Once an asking price gets lowered below that and the home sells. The Realtors Association economist Lawrence Yun says the larger, jumbo loans needed to buy higher-end homes still aren’t available. “The Federal Reserve needs to help restore liquidity for the jumbo mortgage market by buying these loans under the TALF program,” he says
