Home loans: Nobody's buying in Massachusetts
Home loans are getting refinanced – when they're not underwater – but few people are applying for new ones, as Massachusetts home sales continue to drop.
Home sales (blue line) continue to drop in Massachusetts. They're always lower in the winter – few people apply for new home loans to buy snow-covered houses – but now sales are more than 30% lower than they were this time last year (pink bars).
SoldAtTheTop / The Paper Economy
Recently the Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for November showing that single family homes sales slumped 5.5% on a month-to-month basis from October leaving sales a hideous 31.5% below the level seen in November 2009.
Similarly, condos went flat from October but declined a whopping 38.7% below the level seen in November 2009.
The S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) Boston index indicated that area single family home prices declined a notable 1.23% between September and October 2010 with values registering a year-over-year decline of 0.23%, the first annual decline in eleven months.
As for condos, the Boston condo CSI indicated area unit values declined 1.00% between September and October 2010 with values showing a slight year-over-year gain of 0.33%.
Obviously the government's sham housing tax gimmick worked to drive sales last year and further, in the absence of this scam, scores of hapless Bostonians have crept back to the sidelines all downhearted, empty pockets... no deposit... no government freebie... no phony baloney house purchase.
Where the trends will go from here should be pretty obvious... back to the weak "organic" trend that preceded the government's malfeasance... subdued home sales and lower prices.
As in months past, be on the lookout for the inflation adjusted charts produced by BostonBubble.com for an even more accurate "real" view of the current home price movement.
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