Severe Cold Weather In Northeast Causes 36% Decline In Home Sales???

Good morning George. We saw a decline in mortgage application the last two weeks of Dec and first two weeks of January, but no longer the case.

Thank you for the referral.

 Good morning, George. I'm not sure what the stats are but it seems as if sales for January in this area are down as well. I am not sure whether folks are just being conscious of the economy or what. There is a lack of good inventory.

One month decline data is useless. One must look at the big picutre to track sales numbers.

Good morning, George....December was one of our best months....this month has not been great....I'm with you on the claim that the weather is the cause....that's an alibi... but I assure you by the end of Feb. I'll have my marketing in the mail and ready to answer the phone...

Yeah, this doesn't make sense, esp the timing.  I don't remember December being that bad, but Jan has been horrible. I can definitely see Jan causing a bit a decline...but a temporary one.  I'm betting there are less people out looking and as a result maybe longer time to close.

December was incredibly slow the whole month and in fact, the slow down seemed to start last 2 weeks of Nov and things were much slower than vs. same time period year ago...and it seemed to be across many areas.

Now, in Jan, we are seeing plenty of activity but lots of delays for things closing and/or being scheduled due to snow/snow days.  Can't wait for the spring.

Joe: If there are less consumers, it just means we need to do a little more to find them...weather should never be an excuse.

Hi George: There are people looking to buy despite the "frigid" weather. My buyers and I had been out. But today, I have an excuse not to be out. Got a severe cold and my dogs too. However, I am working on something else. This is what I call sublimation. Directing my time to another task or project.

The weather seems to be affecting customer service and call centers too. Tried three times to contact Chase Mortgage yesterday and was disconnected all three times before reaching a human.

I don't think that December was any colder than typical Decembers.  January is certainly one of the coldest in recent years.  I guess we'll have to wait until the numbers come out for January.  I get the feeling that this is more propaganda to support the religion of global warming...ahem, climate change.  Look out for the Polar Vortex...it's coming right for us!!

George-Weather does slow down viewings here. But it's temporary and picks up with the weather becomes more tolerable.

Reminds me of a favorite Jazz song "Up Jumped Spring"

Two words: just wait!  

George, that does sound like a very high percentage, especially since winter can be dicey every year!

The weather affects a lot of different businesses. As an electrician, I am very busy because the extreme changes in temperature cause electrical connections to fail.  

George, all I know is that we have a lot of people down here looking for homes cot get away from the cold weather at home.

You have a point there, George.  We have to adapt to what we can’t control, i this case, the weather.  In Southern California, we don’t have the severe cold weather conditions, but we do have extreme heat waves in the summer, so it would be the same principle.

George, Actually our company sales are up about 25% from December even with the cold weathe. Your theory may be right.

George... I'd like to know how they correlated weather with sales. Seems a bit of stretch to me.