From RealTrends.com: The December 2011 report shows that rate of housing sales increased substantially on an annualized basis from November 2011 and above a year ago. Overall, December 2011 unit sales were up 3.7% from a year ago.The average price of homes sold declined 7.9% from December 2010 to December 2011.
The annualized rate of the combination of new and existing home sales increased to 5.483 million in December 2011 from 5.285 million in December 2010 and was up from the November 2011 rate of 4.999 million. (The new NAR Existing Home Sales data has been incorporated into the calculations for December and may account for the large jump over November 2011). Average prices of homes sold in December 2011 decreased 7.9 percent from December 2010.