Existing Home Sales Rise Again In January

Existing home sales numbers continued moving up in January. This is the third month in a row, putting the numbers above levels from just 1 year ago, the first time in 7 months that sales activity was higher than the previous year.

• Existing-home sales increased 2.7 %, that makes the adjusted annual rate 5.36 million in January 2011
• The annual rate in December 2010 was 5.22 million
• The annual rate was 5.09 million in January 2010. That adds up to 5.3% increase.

Consumer confidence seems to be on the rise, and with some signs of improvement in the economy and on the jobs front, this may be creating more favorable housing conditions.

The one negative issue that still must by addressed is the unnecessary tightening of credit. There are good qualified owner occupant buyers that are getting locked out of the housing market at a time when the housing affordability index is the best in over 40 years and interest rates have not been this low since Eisenhower was President . There is high level of all cash purchases, and investor activity is high. This is bothersome to me. We need to get homes into the hands of "qualified" owner occupant purchasers so that our communities and neighborhoods can come to life again. And Americans can once say that "Home Ownership Matters" to People, to Communities and to America.

On my sidebar there is a widget for the "Home Ownership Matters" page on realtor org. I urge you to put it on your page, spread the word. We are over 1.1 million strong and we have a huge voice in Washington. We can make this happen.

Read the entire article from NAR on realtor.org