CNNMoney: “Home sales at 10 year low”

CNNMoney reports on sales of existing homes in June (July 24):

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales by homeowners dipped in June to an annual pace of 4.86 million…

That’s the lowest rate on record since the first quarter of 1998…

The existing home sales rate – including single-family, town homes, condominiums and co-ops – is down 15.5% from the 5.75 million units sold in June 2007.

…with inventory still on the rise, home prices are falling further. The number of homes available for sale at the end of June rose 0.2% to 4.49 million, which represented an 11.1-month supply of inventory at the current sales pace, up from a 10.8-month supply in May…

June existing-home sales fell 6.6% in the Northeast on a month-to-month basis and dipped 15.8% from June 2007. The median price was also down sharply, 12.6% below June 2007.

See also:

CNNMoney: “Foreclosure filings up 120%” (7/25/08)
A total of 739,714 foreclosure filings were recorded during [April-June 2008], up 14% from the first quarter, and 121% from the same period in 2007.

Bloomberg: “U.S. Foreclosures Double as House Prices Decline” (7/25/08)
[Rick Sharga, executive vice president for marketing at RealtyTrac:] “Based on market conditions themselves, we are nowhere near the end of this trip. Best-case scenario, we’re looking at another year of this.”

…Florida, Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts and Illinois rounded out RealtyTrac’s top 10 [in foreclosure rates]…

Foreclosures push all home values down by an estimated 6 percent, and will contribute to national prices declining another 15 percent by the end of 2009, Ethan Harris and Michelle Meyer, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. economists in New York, said in a report yesterday.

Springfield Republican: “Foreclosures soar in Pioneer Valley” (7/24/08)
Lenders foreclosed on 1,027 properties in Hampden County during the last fiscal year, almost double the number from the previous year.

It far outstripped the record of 800 set in 1980, said County Register of Deeds Donald E. Ashe on Wednesday…

According to the Hampshire County Register of Deeds, the number of foreclosures went from 59 a year ago to 106 in the fiscal year just concluded.

The Republican: “Home prices slide in Pioneer Valley” (7/18/08)
Hampshire County sales were down 29.3 percent and the median price was
$270,000, down 3.1 percent compared with the second quarter of last
year…