"Existing home sales up by 5.1%--a delightful surprise"

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"Existing home sales up by 5.1%--a delightful surprise"

From 4,490,000 to 4,720,000--a 230,000 increase.  Most of which came from the West gaining 30,000 homes. (Reno is part of this).  This affirms the Reno existing home sales report released two weeks ago.

I don't mean to be the 'killjoy' but it may be a good idea to wait 'till this 'trend' becomes consistent.  As I write this, two of the last three months have been going up--a good sign.  But we have a long way to go before we reach 2006 (6,478,000) and 2007 (5,652,000) numbers. 

"Joe, are you saying that we have to wait for the numbers to go up to 2006 and 2007 levels for the market to bottom?"

No.  I think it would be years before we go back to those levels, (supposing we do).  And with the sub-prime crisis still fresh in our minds, loose lending standards will not be back for a very long time. 

To know if the market has indeed bottom: signs will be consistent positive sales numbers, if you want to even be ahead of the pack, check the pending home sales.

Additional resources:

• Realtor.org's Exisiting home sales

• Briefing.com's economic calendar