Housing Market Report Shows Promise

From REALTrends.com

JUNE 2009 CLOSINGS ALMOST DEAD EVEN WITH JUNE 2008 REPRESENTING FIRST MONTH IN OVER 3 YEARS WITHOUT MEASURABLE DECLINE 

Prices however remain down with national average price down 16.5 percent from June 2008 to June 2009.  Western region leads in growth in closed transactions up 10.0 percent from June 2008.  Western region also led in decline in average price with a 26.1 percent drop from June 2008 to June 2009
 
Housing sales appear to have found at least a temporary bottom of the market as June 2009 housing sales units fell only 0.7 percent from June 2008.  While the Western region continued to show real year over year growth as they have for over 8 months, every region showed significant improvement; the Midwest and Northeast regions were down 1.2 and 1.3 percent respectively their best showings in the past two years while the South was down only 6.5 percent in closed units from June 2008 to June 2009.
 
Price declines slowed in every region as well.  The Southern region saw average prices of homes closed down 9.7 percent compared to May 2009 results where prices were down 15.8 percent.  In comparable results, prices in the Midwest were down 10.9 percent versus being down 12.9 percent last month; home prices in the Northeast were down 16.3 percent versus a decline of 17.9 percent last month.  Prices continue to be under pressure with the Western region showing a decline of 26.1 percent from June 2008 to June 2009.
 
“June 2009 results were encouraging in that the decline in closed units and prices appears to be slowing in a significant way,” said Steve Murray, editor of REAL Trends. “This is clearly the best month of results that we have seen since we first started publishing the REAL Trends Housing Market Report two years ago.  While we know that there are substantial challenges ahead, with a predicted rise in foreclosures and continued downward pressure on prices as a result, it would appear that we are closer to the floor of this recession in housing than we have been at any time in the last four years.  We also recognize that one month of these kinds of positive results does not mark a definitive turnaround in the housing market.”
 
Housing Market Report 
 
June 2009                                        May 2009