The Housing Market Is Sinking, Now the Hype Begins
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says housing were up .6% in November 2006 . What their report leaves out is pricing, a critical data element. One could easily see that if housing sales sunk for several months (as they have) and the inventory of available houses rose (as it has) due to more homes 'sitting' on the market longer, sellers would be inclined to drop their prices. And if the prices drop enough, then people will be inclined to buy. So how much have prices dropped to cause a mere .6% increase? Well according to the NAR, prices were 3.1% lower this November than last (for the median priced home). These numbers should be suspect however, since the Housing Price Index , produced by the US government to track housing prices, only includes single family detached homes that sold for $417,000 or less. A single family home does not include town homes or condos. In Northern Virginia, I can't imagine how many single family detached homes sell for $417,000