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Existing Home Sales Increase 7.7 Percent

  • September 21st 2011

by UrbanTurf Staff

Existing Home Sales Increase 7.7 Percent: Figure 1

A day after some not-so-good news on the national housing front, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home sales rose 7.7 percent last month, exceeding analysts’ predictions of a 2.7 percent increase.

Existing home sales, which consist of closed transactions on single-family homes, townhomes, condos and co-ops, in the South region (where DC is located) increased by 3.8 percent between July and August. The median price in the region last month was $151,000, 0.8 percent lower than August 2010.

NAR economist Lawrence Yun on today’s news:

“Some of the improvement in August may result from sales that were delayed in preceding months, but favorable affordability conditions and rising rents are underlying motivations. Investors were more active in absorbing foreclosed properties. In addition to bargain hunting, some investors are in the market to hedge against higher inflation.”

Whether or not the optimistic sales trend will continue is a big question mark, particularly in areas like DC where the maximum size of government-backed loans is set to drop from $729,750 to $625,500 on October 1.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/existing_home_sales_increase_7.7_percent/4194.

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