A Win-Win? Housing Inventory Down, Home Sales Up

National home sales and median price listings in September went up from a year ago with the home inventory down about 20 percent, according to multiple reports Thursday.

These positive signals were offset by a continued slight downward trend in home sales prices, down 3.3 percent from a year ago according to RE/MAX.

But with home sales up, RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly said the hope is that sales price will follow. Of the 53 markets surveyed by the company, 17 saw yearly sales price increases, including Detroit (13.4 percent), Miami (8.4 percent) and Orlando, Fla. (7.8 percent).
Home sales nationally went up 7.6 percent from September 2010 with increases in 44 of 53 markets, including Des Moines, Iowa, (31.3 percent) and Minneapolis (30.1 percent).

Single-family home, condo, townhouse and co-op inventory was down 3.27 percent from August and down 20.09 percent from September last year, according to Realtor.com.

This year-over-year decrease could mean a return to seasonal patterns and higher prices in the coming months, though markets are still fragile and could weaken in bad economic conditions.

Read the full story at Housingwire.

See also:
Open Houses of the Week: Markets on the Rise
Mortgage Rates Jump After Record Low
5 Ways to Nab Autumn Buyers Before They Hibernate

More on AOL Real Estate:
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Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.

Reader Comments (2)

by Jill Kipnis - October 14th 2011 @ 1:18PM

Thanks for the story. According to Realtor.com's September 2011 real estate data trend report, the national median list price was $190,000, a 1.60% year-over-year increase and a 0.05% month-over-month increase. The national median age of inventory remained unchanged from last year, at 107 days.

Reply | Report

by DR, W. - October 15th 2011 @ 8:39PM

Get rid of the 25 million illegal aliens in the US and their anchor children and there will once again be plenty of jobs for all US citizens. There are over 150 million people worldwide that would love to come here as documented workers to do the jobs we don't want and they will gladly learn english and not expect their anchor children to become US citizens or for us to pay all their medical expenses. ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM SOUTH OF THE BORDER ARE THE WORST PEOPLE TO EVER COME HERE. 75% OF THEM WORKED FOR THE CARTELLS AND ARE STILL INVOLVED IN ILLEGAL ACTIVITY. WATCH BORDER WARS TONITE AT 9 PM ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL.

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