Home sales slip, stock of unsold homes rises

by Mikasi | May 24, 2008 at 03:57 am

183 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Just when you thought it was safe to get back into the real estate sector...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes slipped last month and the backlog of unsold properties hit a record high, according to data on Friday that suggested the market's downturn still has a long way to run.

Home resales fell 1 percent in April to a 4.89 million-unit annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said.

Still a long way to run, huh? Perhaps all those people who held real estate investment courses that taught you how to buy properties cheap, even putting downpayments on your credit card weren't to bright after all. That is unless they charged to tell you how to do it but never did it themselves.

WASHINGTON"The increase in unsold inventory suggests that the housing downturn will continue on through this year and well into next," said Moody's Economy.com Chief Economist Mark Zandi.

---skip---

"The big surprise was the inventory of unsold homes rising to a record level,' said Rudy Narvas, a senior analyst at 4Cast Ltd. in New York. "This would suggest to us that further price declines are going to be necessary for the inventory to clear."

On thr bright side, if this mess will persist for at least another year that gives some of us who want to buy a home and not just make an investment a stretch of time to get a serious downpayment together.

WASHINGTON"The
The report showed the median home price in April was down 8 percent from a year ago, at $202,300. It was the second-largest price decline on record, following the biggest drop in February.

And if their prices keep dropping and we keep saving, there's a chance we can meet comfortably in the middle somewhere around 2011

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon