This week, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® released the Existing Home Sales report for December. We saw a rising surge from September through November, as buyers rushed to complete sales before the original November deadline for the tax credit. Existing home sales fell as expected in December. However, something we didn’t expect to see — prices rose from December 2008 and annual sales improved in 2009.
Existing home sales, including single-family, town homes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units in December from 6.54 million in November, but remain 15 percent above the 4.74 million-unit level in December 2008.
And, as this is the last existing home sales report of 2009, we can tell you that for all of last year, there were 5,156,000 existing-home sales, which was 4.9 percent higher than the 4,913,000 transactions recorded in 2008 and that’s the first annual sales gain since 2005.
In other news this week, President Obama went to Capitol Hill to continue a Washington tradition - delivering his State of the Union address. In a difficult political and economic climate, the President focused on the needs of the middle class - quality education, affordable college tuition, responsible retirement planning, quality health care – and most important of all – protecting a family’s biggest investment - their home.
The President spent much of his address discussing ideas for generating more jobs, keeping the lines of credit open for more Americans and continuing the process of economic recovery - all crucial areas of interest for the American homeowner.
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