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Real estate sales up nationally for fourth straight month

The National Association of Realtors says that national sales of existing homes rose in July, marking the fourth consecutive month of home sale increases.

That’s the good news, and it really is good news in a market as bad as this one has been.

 But here’s the not-so-good news; most of that increase can be traced to distressed properties – foreclosures and short sales.

Even so, any increase in home sales is a good thing, and this national trend noted by NAR seems to mirror what we have been seeing here in Tampa Bay – increasing numbers of home sales even as prices have continued a downward trend. Those lower prices have contributed to the uptick in sales, as have continuing good mortgage rates and the lure of that $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

That tax credit will come to and end at the end of November, and many observers are predicting a bit of a scramble as first-time buyers try to purchase homes before the deadline.

So the real estate market really looks like this: It’s a great time to buy if you qualify as a first-time homebuyer – prices are extremely attractive, mortgage rates are low, and there is a really attractive tax credit out there for the taking. It’s not so great for people who want to move up to a better home, or who have a home they need to sell.

There really is little activity in the middle- or upper ranges of the market except for those relatively rare cash buyers.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 11:06 am and is filed under Palm Harbor, real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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