Home sales rose nationally in December, marking the third consecutive month that the market has shown improvement.
Previously
owned homes were sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61
million units, up 5.0% from November and 3.6% from December a year
prior, according to the National Assn. of Realtors.
“The market
for single-family homes picked up in the second half of 2011, after
being stuck near the bottom for nearly three years,” Patrick Newport, an
economist with IHS Global Insight, wrote in a note. “This pickup is
real, but the road to recovery will be a slow one.”
About one in three homes sold
last month was a so-called distressed sale, either a foreclosure or a
short sale, the latter involving a bank allowing a home to be sold for
less than the outstanding debt on the property. Roughly one in three
homes was purchased in cash.
The nation’s housing inventory
dropped 9.2% from the prior month, to 2.38 million homes available for
sale. That represents a supply of six months and a little less than a
week. Economists consider about six months of supply to be a stable
market.
January 20, 2012, 10:49 a.m.
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