Archive for August 26th, 2010

Housing market is dreadful

Posted in Economy, Housing on August 26th, 2010 by Paul Deng – Be the first to comment

New home sales is making new historical lows,

new home sales1 300x200 Housing market is dreadful

and existing home sales reached the lowest level since 1996.

existing home sales 300x201 Housing market is dreadful

(click to enlarge; graph courtesy of Calculatedrisk)

After the expiration of home buying credit, this was expected.  But the magnitude of decline still shocked people.  Due to slow sales, inventory of unsold homes starts to ramp up again.

housing supply 300x294 Housing market is dreadful

And this is happening despite historically low mortgage rate.  Two things might be working against potential home buyer’s psychology: 1) Is my job secure?  2) Will the house price keep falling?

mortgage rate and unemployment 300x265 Housing market is dreadful

(click to enlarge; graph courtesy of Northern Trust)