April Home Sales Not Blooming

[Jun 6, 2008.]

In a disappointing turn, April home sales were still down 1% from March. While 1% may not seem that big of a deal the over all market is down 15% from last year so any little bit will help in this declining market.

While several experts expected a lower average then what actually happened they are still not too thrilled by the figures. The problem comes when you look at the number of homes on the market that are still waiting to be sold. That number rose 10% as April drew to a close. This means that up to 4.55 million homes are waiting for a buyer. This is causing homes to plummet in price for those homes that actually do sale.

With these results many experts are expecting to see “relatively disappointing numbers for the next couple months” as voiced by Mike Larson who is a real estate analyst for Weiss Research.

To put the declining market into perspective you will have to look back a few years to 2005 when in September 7.2 million units were sold. Compare that number to the 4.89 million figures for April and it is easy to see how the market is no longer booming.

These figures are only expected to worsen throughout the year until the market can stabilize. There are a few areas that are seeing increases in sales including places in California and Florida who were both hardest hit by the housing market collapse. The western portion of the United States saw a rise of 6.4% which is still below last year’s average.

The consensus is the same all around. The housing market has a long way to go before it sees an increase and in that time foreclosures will continue adding the amount of home on the market for sale.

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