SocraticGadfly: House sales and prices drop again

April 22, 2008

House sales and prices drop again

And the price drop on existing homes was kind of steep. A 7.7 percent falloff says to me that potential buyers are going to hold out for a while, “two-tracking” potential home buys by watching how much further new home prices drop, and how much further that depresses existing home prices.

The decline in sales volume wasn’t as big, at 2 percent. That, to me, says that more homeowners are either accepting lower prices. Whether that fuels even further drops, or puts a bottom on the floor, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the local scene was interesting. Here in Dallas-Fort Worth, prices only dropped 1 percent, but sales dropped more than 25 percent. As DFW isn’t a pricey market anyway, prices on existing homes really don’t have far to fall. But, the sales drop makes me wonder if the housing crunch is going to gather steam here.

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