AbilityBlog.com

September Spike in Home Resales

Great news hit the wires this morning as the National Association of Realtors released September resales numbers.  In August, home resales fell for the first time in four months.  September resales spiked 9.4% to the highest level in 2 years.

The home resales have been seasonally adjusted to an annual rate of 5.57 million (up from 5.1 million).  Nationally, prices are still down.  The median sales price in September was $174,900, down 8.5% from 177,300 in August.  Additionally, most homes sales are under 250K; 21% were $0-$100k and 48% were $100k-$250k.

Inventory fell 7% to 3.63 million; a 7.8 supply of inventory at the current sales pace.  Nationally, resales are up 24% from their bottom in January but down 23% from 4 years ago.

We expect October will continue at the same or higher pace than September.  There are three major factors driving this activity: First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8k, FHA mortgage programs, and historically low mortgage prices.  First-time home owners are rushing to close on their homes before November 30th when the tax credit is set to expire.  While lawmakers are considering extending and expanding the tax credit to the all home buyers, there is still no certainty that this will happen.  Realtors and Mortgage Companies alike are seeing first-hand how many clients are buying for the first time.  The expiration of the tax credit could significantly impact the real estate market after November 30th.

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September Arizona Market Wrap Up & Tax Credit Expiration Nov 30th

As we closed out the last month of the third quarter, activity in the Phoenix Real Estate Market was strong.

October, thus far, has been a big month for Lendability.com on Purchase Loans because there is still uncertainty surrounding the expiration of the tax credit.  As of today, it will expire on November 30th.  That means we need to get Purchase Contracts in and Loans in Process as soon as possible.

Most of us are anxiously awaiting the decision on the expansion and extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit. While debatable on a national scale, here at Lendability.com most, if not all, of our Realtor Affiliates have benefited from this tax credit.  Over 80% of our Arizona Purchase Loans are first time home buyers.

The expansion and extension will definitely impact our market place.  Stay tuned for updates.

Here are Results for September 2009 (Information was provided by our friends at CromfordReport.com):

• Active Listing @ 37,793 remained STEADY from August 2009 @ 37,523 - It’s important to note that  Active listings in August 2008 were @ 53,908
• Pending Listings @ 13,709 were up 437 from August 2009 @ 12,639
• Sales Per Month @ 7,593 were down 937 from August 2009 @ 8,530 - note that Sales Per Month in August 2008 were @ 5,505
• Sales per Year @ 84,210 are up 30,719 from 2008 @ 53,491
• Days on Market @ 94 is down 7 days from August 2009 @ 101
• Days on Inventory @ 164 is down 3 days from August 2009 @ 167