Info That Hits Us Where We Live - Existing Home Sales

"Every path hath a puddle."--George Herbert, Welsh-British poet, orator, and priest

Last week, the path to recovery in the housing market required us to step over the puddle of a 3% dip in Housing Starts for November. Yet that path has also taken us to an annual rate of 861,000 units, putting overall starts UP 21.6% versus a year ago, and single family starts UP 22.8%. New Building Permits were UP 3.6% in November, so no puddles in that path where single-family permits are UP 25.3% over a year ago. No wonder the NAHB homebuilder confidence index gained for the eighth month in a row.

Data over on the existing home front was even rosier. Existing Home Sales went UP 5.9% in November, crossing the 5 million unit threshold, at 5.04 million homes. Those sales are UP 14.5% from a year ago. The median price is UP 10.1% in November, going to $180,600, as the months' supply of existing homes plummeted to 4.8 months. The FHFA index of prices for homes financed by conforming loans gained 0.5% in October, UP 5.6% versus a year ago.

Kristen Zorda, Prime Lending Loan Officer                                                                                648 Plank Rd. Suite 203                                                                                                          Clifton Park NY 12065                                                                                                             Office: 518-366-7999