With the recent press release by Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors and RealtyTrac have (not surpringly) come a spate of articles and headlines all decrying the allegedly increasingly horrible state of the real estate market.
Here’s what you didn’t see:
From RealtyTrac: “…however the 8% monthly increase in January is not as precipitous as the 19% spike we saw in January of 2007, and several key states actually experienced decreasing foreclosure activity from the previous month.”
Also, while Nevada still leads the nation in foreclosure activity it has shown a “month over month drop in foreclosure activity”. In fact Nevada had a 45% decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month!
While Florida has the 2nd highest numbers of foreclosures it has shown a “3% month over month decrease in foreclosure activity…”
From the National Association of Realtors:
Yun used this explanation to describe the decrease in median home prices: “Because the slow down in sales is greater in high cost markets, there is a downward pull to the national median from a year ago…”
Most articles and reports in the media, mentioned the decrease in the national median home price, as if it were a reflection of the overall health of the housing market, but failed to mention much of the data comes from a slowdown with higher end homes and the current issues with jumbo loans.
Yun also went on to comment that due to increases in FHA and conventional loan limits in many areas we are likely to see an increase in home sales later this year.
The housing market is by no means all pony rides in May sunshine but by the same token the actual numbers just don’t bear out a national housing crisis.
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