By Dees Stribling | MHN Online
The National Multi Housing Council reported on Monday that all four indexes of its October Survey of Apartment Market Conditions dipped below 50 for the first time since July 2009. Market Tightness (46), Sales Volume (46), Equity Financing (39) and Debt Financing (41) all indicated declining conditions from the previous quarter. “After four years of almost continuous improvement across all indicators, apartment markets have taken a small step back,” Mark Obrinsky, NMHC’s chief economist, notes.
Existing homes sales see downtick
The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include ever kind of for-sale property, declined 1.9 percent to an annualized rate of 5.29 million units in September from 5.39 million units in August. Compared with last year, however, existing home sales are still stronger, up 10.7 percent from September 2012.
NAR also reported that total housing inventory at the end of September was unchanged at 2.21 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a five-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with a 4.9-month supply in August. Unsold inventory is 1.8 percent above a year ago, when there was a 5.4-month supply.
Existing home sales have managed to claw their way back to where they were in the early 2000s, when the rate was steadily increasing to a bubble high of more than 700,000 units in 2005. The most recent low was immediately after the homebuyer tax credit expired in 2010, when the rate nearly dropped to 300,000 units.
