Industry watchers were surprised by the fact that there was an unexpected fall of sales of existing homes in the month of January. For those who thought the housing market was back in business, this news has come as a setback.

An increase in sales was expected

Looking at the support infused by the federal government into the market and the banks doing all they could to prop up sales, an increase in homes sales was expected. The fact that the salaries were also up, contributed to this belief. But, all positive estimation fell by the wayside as the sales rate in January was one of the lowest since the time recovery started taking place in the housing market.

Reasons for the drop

There can be many reasons for the drop, but experts believe that the primary reason for a drop in the home sales is the time taken between shopping for a home and closing the deal. There was quite a big delay between the two processes. Such home buyers wanted to take the advantage of the popular tax credit. This homebuyer tax credit was extended in the month of November, and this is when people got into the market. This has meant that contracts are just being offered and the sales will close after a few months.

Activity might be picking up

Owing to the aforementioned facts, there is a good chance that home sales activity will be picking up in the near future. Buyers are slowly but surely taking advantage of the tax credit, but the process takes time. Industry watchers estimate that there will be a shift in figures for the better. The deadline for tax credit is looming, so people who want to take advantage of tax credit will do so now.

Across the board sufferings

It isn’t that there were some types of real estate that suffered, while the sales for some properties went up. Housing market went down, Period. There was an across the board drop in the sales of single family homes and even condominiums. The drop in sales was also across regions, where the Northeast suffered heavily while the West fared marginally better.

When it comes to real estate prices, a further decrease is still on the cards, even though the market might be just about lurching forward. Experts believe that the situation will continue in this fashion for the next few years.

As far as US realtor market is concerned the present home sales from the first time buyers has recorded an increase considering the buyer tax credit benefit available to them coupled with the lower most interest rates, which have never been so low in the past.

The home sales comprising of single family, town home, condominiums and cooperative properties showed an upward trend by about 10 %. The gain in the pricing is surprising. The most moving factor is that the first time buyers want their purchase completed before the Tax credit offer closes by the end of this month.
With the present incentive induced sale of home properties, the next few months shall not record the present rise in the sales. On the contrary there shall be fall in the sales and shall witness brisk sale again in coming spring or little before.

Considering the regional response there was about 11.00 % increase in the north east region. The average price for a home property here was about $2, 3500; it is about 2.5 percent below than the previous years recorded average sale price of such properties.

If one considers the Midwest region there has been an increase in the home sales by around 14.5 % and average price is this region was around $1, 46,000 thus recording an average increase in the price by 1.1 % over the October 2008 recorded sales. This is the only region where there has been increase in the sale price.
Similarly considering the situation in South region the present home sales recorded a rise of around 12.7 % with an annual level of 2.30 million by October. The current increase is of 25.7 % more than October, 2008. The average price of south region was $151,100, which is 6.3 % less than the figure of last year.
The present home sales in the western region increased fractionally by 1.6 %, but considering the overall sale of the number of properties sale involved the increase is 12.00 % over the last year record. At this time also the properties prices are low in this region.