Today's National Association of Realtors® Press Release

195460 Resource 178435 178982 178982 1201190878510 1201196552011 Controlled National Home Sales Stats for December Reported This Morning

Existing Home Sales for December fail to add much clarity for those in search of an economic crystal ball

The monthly announcement of national and regional statistics on home sales for the prior month caught less attention today in light of the world-wide stock market drop in the last week. But KNAU still called it “a terrible decline.” Well, to quote another program on KNAU, “let’s do the numbers:”According to the statistics compiled and released by the National Association of Realtors®, existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops (the latter is not a Flagstaff real estate option) – slipped 2.2 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units in December from a pace of 5.00 million in November. Sales were 22.0 percent below the 6.27 million-unit level in December 2006. For all of 2007, there were 5,652,000 existing-home sales, the fifth highest year on record; however, the total was 12.8 percent below the 6,478,000 transactions recorded in 2006. In my annual analysis of the Flagstaff real estate market, we found that the so-called “terrible decline” has not taken median home prices below the median prices of 2005 in Flagstaff overall or for  any market segment (except in the condominium market, where we’re not comparing apples to apples because of the entry of new products).   Indicating that the bottom of this national downturn may be approaching, or past, total housing inventory fell 7.4 percent at the end of December to 3.91 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 9.6-month supply nationally at the current sales pace, down from a 10.1-month supply in November. This could be less enthusiastic sellers withdrawing their homes in a tough market, or it could be a one-month blip because sellers did not want the stress of seller their homes during the holidays. We’ll see next month. NAR President Richard Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif., said current housing conditions vary widely with local markets.  “Many local areas continue to have healthy or improving local housing markets,” he said.  “For example, we saw higher home sales last month in diverse areas such as San Antonio; Syracuse; Springfield, Ill.; and Sarasota, Fla.  If you’re thinking about getting into the market as a buyer or a seller, consult a Realtor® to learn about conditions in your area – they may be considerably different from the composite national picture.”For information on the 2007 market in Flagstaff download an Adobe Acrobat version of our <a title="Flagstaff 2007 Annual Real Estate Market Report" href="http://control.cisdata.net/bin/filelink.php/AR49005/46a93b529400f8f05b55c5f29b412042/" target="_blank">Annual Flagstaff Real Estate Market Report</a>. For the latest – my mid-January Flagstaff real estate market report, here is the blog post: <a title="Flagstaff January 2008 Real Estate Market" href="public/item/195240" target="_blank">Flagstaff Real Estate -- Mid-January Market Update</a>. For your own personal analysis of the current market in the Flagstaff neighborhoods where you intend to buy or sell, hire <a href="http://bestflagstaffhomes.com/">Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties</a> as the agents to represent you in this most important transaction of your lifetime. 9 application/xml false December 2007 real estate market statistics Flagstaff market report Flagstaff real estate Flagstaff real estate agent NAR National Association of Realtors National Association of Realtors® national real estate news Today's National Association of Realtors® Press Release Existing-home sales declined in December following several months of stable activity, with total sales in 2007 at the fifth highest on record http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2008/ehs_jan08_existing_home_sales_down.html Existing Home Sales and Homes for Sale Decline in December Wall Street Journal Report on the Home Sales News http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120118015625613301.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news Many local areas continue to have healthy or improving local housing markets. Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aheitland 24.121.32.9 false true false false true 178975 false false true false false false true 195717 Resource 178975 173239 178982 1201369881479 1201494245703 Controlled New Construction?

Do you know when areas like Bellemont and the Presidio will be seeing new construction?  I think there were some projects there, but may have been slowed by the market. 10 application/xml false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aheitland 24.121.32.9 false true false false true 195781 Resource 178975 178982 178982 1201494971318 1201494971318 Controlled Forecast for New Construction

Not this year

There was recently an article about the <a title="Presidio status" href="http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2008/01/13/news/20080113_front%20page_26.txt" target="_blank">Presidio development in the Arizona Daily Sun</a>. The developer says they hope to build 50 homes in 2008, starting in March. Based on past performance, and the information in the article, I think it's reasonable to be skeptical about that projection for home development this year. Other builders in Flagstaff, notably Empire Residential Sales - which was the major builder in Bellemont in the past -- have slowed their development plans to clear out existing inventory before proceeding. Building permits in Flagstaff are down and likely to remain down for the rest of 2008. This is part of the natural cycle of recovery for the housing market, but it means we'll see  few new Flagstaff homes starting up until 2009. There are some townhomes under construction on 4th Street, south of the new bridge. 10 application/xml false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aheitland 24.121.32.9 false true false false true 178435 blog blogsite/BestFlagstaffHomes/web