I'm still trying to determine if I'm encouraged by the latest news from the Commerce Department that homes ales declined 0.6 per cent last month. The report states that the decline is less than half of what had been predicted. That sounds encouraging but makes me worry that July and August will come in week. Certainly I'm hopeful that we're seeing a reversal but I'm not so naive to stake my expectations on one month.
I like to put in light, however, of what we're seeing in our local market. We're starting to see the number of units moving picking up. At the same time, the trend that includes the true deals selling seems to also be increasing. The result of foreclosed or financially stressed homes in the market has been a continued price decline. Further, we're seeing that price decline accelerate. I don't necessarilly see that as a bad trend as we have long had too much inventory on the market and economic forces must eventually win over.
Ultimately, when I look at the information, our prices are currently in line with where we were before the huge price leaps of 2004, 2005, and even 2006 (when prices were going up while transactions were dropping off). Ultimately, if the pricing trend continues much longer, there will be investor steal showing up more and more frequently.
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