Who cares if home sales are slowing down
Scott P. Rogers
The pace of home sales is down 5% this year as compared to last year.
But here's an interesting perspective offered up by one of my clients....
Who cares if home sales are slowing down!?
As he points out -- the number of homes selling each month might be of more interest to the Realtor profession than the buying and selling public.
What an interesting point!
He then goes on to call out several data points that are much more important to him, and that he suspects (I agree) are more important to homeowners:
- Are prices going up or down?
- Are inventory levels high or low? Low is better -- for everyone except those who want to buy a home.
- Are foreclosures high or low and going up or down?
Indeed -- these three indicates are great benchmarks for the health of our local real estate market, and ultimately, he's right -- if prices are going up, inventory levels are low, and foreclosures are infrequent -- it doesn't matter quite so much whether home sales are slightly slower this year than last.
So, chew on that for a bit. Home sales being higher than the previous year (at any given point) is not a necessary ingredient for a healthy real estate market.
Read more about our local (slower-than-last-year) real estate market in my most recent monthly market report by clicking on the cover of the report below....
