While the pace of existing home sales in the U.S. quickened in November, the pace of new home sales fell 11 percent from October.
“The tax credit put a Band-Aid over the housing problem and in October and November we ripped it off” as it was set to expire, said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, who projected sales would fall. “Demand for housing is not likely to pick up on a consistent basis until we start to see some improvement in employment.”
Think foreclosures when trying to rationalize the divergence in pace between existing and new home sales.
∙ A Sprinter’s Or Marathoner’s Pace? [SocketSite]
∙ Sales of U.S. New Homes Unexpectedly Fell in November [Bloomberg]
The key to the real estate market is the move up buyer re-entering the market. New homes are preferred by many in this segment of the market. The overall economy will not improve unless builders can start building and selling their homes.
Uh…I think you have it backwards. The real estate market overall, including new homes, won’t start improving until the real economy improves, because people need jobs that are steady and high-paying in order to be able to purchase those new homes. Especially now that the credit bubble is popped and deflating.
If Mr. Vitner is correct that “the tax credit put a Band-Aid over the housing problem and in October and November we ripped it off”, then the extended tax credit, which is in effect now and is set to expire at the end of April, might have a large effect on home sales in May. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the credit won’t be extended again:
So if the extended credit just pulled a lot of so-called “move up buyers” into the market ahead of when they usually would have “moved up” anyway, we should have a measureable drop-off in May, 2010.
What Fred Doleac said is consistent with Calculated Risk:
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/12/residential-investment-moving-sideways.html
Residential investment tends to be a leading indicator.
I do agree that until move-up buyers are the normal percentage, it would be hard to say the housing market is “normal.”