If you want to know the direction the national housing market is taking, read the National Association of REALTORS’ monthly “Existing Home Sales Report.”
According to the report, the market had a 7.6 percent increase in sales over the same time last year. This increase was largely due to the tax credit offered to first-time buyers. However, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun believes other influencing factors include a positive shift in buyer confidence, home price stabilization, an upswing in the economy and still low mortgage rates.
Yun went on to say that house prices are beginning to go up, adding that “a return to old-fashioned responsible lending and buying will help the housing market avoid disruptive and painful buble-bust cycles.”
We can only hope. The supply of homes for sale still far exceeds the demand for them. Prices can’t really go up until the housing market equals itself out – when the numbers of homes for sale and buyers for those homes gets closer in range.