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NAR announces that the housing market has hit bottom

The October pending home sales were released this morning and showed a slight increase in October from September.  But, compared with October 2006, sales were down nationwide 18.4%. In the Midwest, sales were down from September by 1.4%. They were down year over year by 11.7%.

From the Wall Street Journal:

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said the worst part of the credit crunch has been accounted for in the data, and that mortgage conditions have gotten better. “Some postponed activity should turn up in existing-home sales over the next couple of months, and I expect sales at fairly stable to slightly higher levels,” he said.

NAR is expecting sales and prices to rise weakly in 2008 and for the market to return to normal appreciation in 2009.

Whew. Glad that this “crisis” is over.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 9:42 am and is filed under Market Conditions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “NAR announces that the housing market has hit bottom”

  1. Maybe if they start counting “sales” to lenders.

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  2. This guy is a paid shill, which some people take offense with. See here: http://lawrenceyunwatch.blogspot.com/

    I just find him amusing.

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  3. Sabrina,

    Do you think that the “crisis” is over? I would be curious to hear your opinion on the local market going forward.

    TS

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  4. Here is a great post about the NAR’s predictions:
    http://paper-money.blogspot.com/2007/12/narcasting-future-december-2007.html

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  5. G: There were websites devoted to David Lereah, former chief economist at NAR before Yun took over.

    http://davidlereahwatch.blogspot.com/

    It’s gotten less interesting for those blogs now that he left the post though. Perhaps everyone is now reading the blogs you posted about Yun instead. ha!

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  6. TS: I don’t think the crisis is even close to being over. Most of the Alt-A loans won’t correct until next year (these are the borrowers who weren’t subprime but weren’t prime either.)

    And many of the “prime” borrowers are also in over their heads.

    NAR likes to be optimistic- that’s their job. But this housing market has a long way to go before it’s done correcting.

    One sign it’s not over yet: I actually know of some people still buying condos in Chicago as investments. Also, we haven’t seen a wave of people not closing on their new construction condos yet (which I think we’ll see before we truly hit bottom.)

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  7. David Lereah, now there’s a name that evokes even more amusement than fun-Yun. He is the author of riveting titles such as “Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?” and “Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust – And How You Can Profit from It: How to Build Wealth in Today’s Expanding Real Estate Market.” Pure comic gold.

    Chicago might not even be out of the first inning of the bust.

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