Home sales increase

Well, today we finally have some good news on the US real estate market. The National Association of Realtors just released the report showing that existing home sales for August  rose 7.7%.  I’m sure all the national media outlets will be proclaiming the August home sales increase. But, I wonder how many will also report the other major housing news in this report. Yes, the other side of the coin is (as reported in this report) that median price for an existing home in August was down 5.1% from a year ago!

So, keeping in mind that August is at the tail end of the seasonally strongest time for marketing real estate and we are in an historic low interest rate environment with mortgage loans around 4%, to see home sales up is always welcome, but, the 5.1% decline in home prices from a year ago is very disheartening.