Home Sales in the West Still Strong

Once again the nationwide Existing Home Sales numbers are grim, and once again the West is moving in the opposite direction. The headlines say that last month saw the sharpest decline in home sales on record and that the prices are also down by 13.2%, the largest percentage since they began keeping track.

A closer look at the data shows two very different trends blending together to give these numbers. The West was the only region to show an increase in existing home sales once again. In fact, the single family numbers in the west are up 19.8% over last year, which is actually pretty impressive.

Of course a lot of this is the result of dramatically lower prices as bank owned properties begin to move. Single Family Home prices were off by 25.5%, which is by far the most for any region.

Once again this looks like a "first in, first out" scenario. The super heated California markets that crashed first seem to be about a year ahead of the rest of the country and, hopefully, are already moving toward a recovery.

Once those markets burn through some of their inventory and find some stable footing, our own little market should bounce back as well since most of the new buyers in Southern Oregon are the sellers from California.