This week in Housing….

This week in Housing….

Last week presented us with divergent housing news. First, November Existing Home Sales came in UP 7.4%, at an annual rate of 6.54 million. This was way ahead of estimates and a 44.1% sales jump over a year ago. We had increases in all regions of the country, all due to single-family homes.

The median price went up to $172,600, down 4.3% from a year ago, but a big improvement from January, when prices were off 17.5% from the prior year. The supply declined to 6.5 months, as inventories fell to 3.52 million, their lowest level since December 2006. In the past three months, Existing Home Sales are up 28.5%. One more sign of housing market recovery came in a report that prices for homes financed with conforming mortgages increased 0.6% in October.

Now for the news in the other direction. November New Home Sales fell 11.3%, to an annual rate of 355,000. But November was an unusual month, with uncertainty over the tax credit slowing things down. New Home Sales are still UP 7.9% from January and inventories dropped in November to 235,000. This is the lowest level since 1971 and a 58.9% decline from the mid-2006 inventory peak. So even at this slower sales pace, experts feel home building will have to increase over the next few months to meet the demand that’s out there.

The preceding is courtesy Inside Lending Newsletter from Tom Laswell with Guild Mortgage.