Summer has been a little slow for most realtors country wide but we are still buoyed by the solid sales during the Spring season, and the remainder of the year, will continue to head up steadily. I was reading an article on real life economy and it states that existing homes have been selling at an annualized pace of 5.1 million according to Lawrence Yun the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. The remainder of the year should be better for the following reasons:
1. More jobs
2. Rising stock market wealth
3. Rising apartment rents
4. Continuing high affordability conditions
5. Home values at historically justifiable levels
6. Investors looking to hedge against inflation
7. Foreigners buying U.S. homes on the cheap
Other potential contributing factors, when they happen, are huge bank profits translating into more desire to lend and some reduction to market friction as lenders' short sale approval processes improve and appraisals become less of an issue.
Which means that if existing-home sales either hold at the 5.1 million pace or improve on that, then the annual sales tally will easily exceed the 4.9 million home sales we saw last year.
I'm sure we will still have obstacles to overcome... High gas prices are a daily reminder that something is not right with the economy; that will hold back consumer confidence, along with what is happening with Washington policymakers in regards to FHA and VA mortgage programs.
At least through the rest of 2011, improving market developments should outweigh the negative impact imposed by those policymakers.
To learn how NAR plans to ensure the continued accuracy of its existing-home sales calculation in the years ahead go to http://tinyurl.com/5tz9ofw
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