There is no question that the real estate market is in a dramatic downturn, but the question on everyones mined is how deep and how long will the decline last, and how will it affect our market. Here are some interesting statistics from the International Herald Tribune.
Boosters in the U.S. may decry the media’s characterization of the housing industry’s woes, but there’s no mistaking the terrible numbers released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of single family homes were down 13 percent for 2007, the worst decline since 1982. The median price for a single family home fell 1.8 percent, the first annual decline on record, going back to 1968, the NAR reports. It may have been the first annual drop since the Great Depression in the 1930s, NAR economist Lawrence Yun told the Associated Press.
For a sense of the semi-delusional boosterism that still exists in many parts of the U.S., read the NAR’s press release, which touts that total sales were the “fifth highest on record.”
But the NAR stats only hint at the real extent of the problems. The national numbers are balanced by many small- and mid-sized regions which fared relatively well compared to the sharp declines in markets like California and Florida.
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