Home Sales Statistics Don't Lie..... They Disagree

The one real estate statistic I believe hasn't been proven yet. But I think it is safe to estimate that at least 99% of consumers do not make purchase or selling decisions based on the market statistics they read.


Within the past 24 hours (at press time), we have had another set of examples that you can believe what you prefer to believe.


Last night, the National Association of Home Builders issued a "story" about how much existing home sales have risen this year, especially in March (2015) when compared with previous months and with March of 2014.


The story tells us how first-time buyer shares have increased, how there is more inventory than in recent months, and how the number of distressed home sales have dropped.


The very next morning, the Associated Press published a story headlined "New home sales collapsed in March".


Although the AP story also reports that new home sales were higher, the very same story also says new home sales dropped 33% percent in the Northeast and 15.8% percent in the South. And that the median sales price fell 1.7% since March 2014.




Seeing these "stories" within hours of each other makes me feel the same way as the times I received those "Now is the time to sell!" mailers and e-mails from real estate agents at the same as my home was more than $100,000 underwater.


For the millions who cannot buy or sell a home due to circumstances beyond their control, this arranging of information is in the same category as the drug commercials with potential side effects much worse than the purpose of the drug.


Unfortunately, this is how it goes in real estate these days. Too many people working statistics in their favor and not enough of them concentrating on actually fixing the market.




http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/04/spring-for-existing-home-sales-in-america/


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-new-home-sales-20150423-story.html