The patient approach advocated by the 1st Marquess of Halifax is proving to be the right tactic for mastering today's housing market. Last week, October Existing Home Sales inched up to an annual rate just under 5 million units. And although things appear to be improving only slowly, existing home sales are actually UP 13.5% from a year ago.
Like life, the situation in the housing market depends on what we make of it. Last week, both options were covered in the latest quarterly report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The good option: home sales in Q3 rose in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The negative: the median existing single-family home price rose in only 39 of 150 metro areas, declining in 111 of them. Yet the NAR chief economist pointed out that the sales data was encouraging, because "Home sales need to recover first--only then can prices stabilize."
