WREN Report: Home Resales and Prices Fall, Mortgage Rates Up

May 26, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on May 2008 • On a year-over-year basis and seasonally, adjusted sales of existing homes plummeted 17.5 percent in April, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Compared with March, overall sales slipped 1 percent, the ninth decrease in the last 13 months.

Measured against year-earlier figures, NAR said sales decreased 14.7 percent in Northeast, 19.7 percent in Midwest, 18.6 percent in the South and 15.3 percent in the West.

Compared with March results, home resales were down 4.4 percent in the Northeast and 6 percent in the Midwest, were flat in the South and increased 6.4 percent in the West.

• Not only are overall existing home sales down, but the sales prices of home also fell in April, down 8 percent from a year ago. Regionally, NAR said sales prices fell 7.7 percent in the Northeast, 2.9 percent in the Midwest, 5.1 percent in the South and a whopping 16.7 percent in the West.

• While the number of home sales is plummeting and sales prices are falling significantly, 30-year mortgage rates are inching up, according to Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac, the arm of the federal government that tracks mortgage rates, reported the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate in April was 5.92 percent, up from 5.76 percent in January. For the first four weeks of May, the average 30-year rate was 6.03 percent.

Weekly Review of Economic News (WREN) reports are summaries of recently-released economic statistical data that affect the home furnishings industry. WREN reports are compiled by HFB Research Editor Janice Chamberlain.