Economists, real estate agents, and stock analysts all predict what they believe the stock market will do in the coming months and on into the coming year. All the rest of us, sit back, wonder, and wait to hear the good or bad news when it comes to housing prices, interest rates, and their prediction on homes sales new and existing.

When you take a look at The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), which is a forward looking indicator that is based on contracts that were signed a couple of months in the past you can get a feel for what may be ahead. If we look at the month of October throughout the United States, we can see that the PHSI is pretty much on the rise. In the Northeast there was increase of 16%, which brought the PHSI to 80.6, however, this is still 11.1% below where it was in 2006. In the West, the PHSI rose 8.4%, which brought it to 87.3; once again, this is 16.9% below last year. In the Midwest, the PHSI decreased 1.4% bringing it to 85.5, which is still 11.7% below last year at the same time. In the South, the PHSI decreased as well 7.8% bringing it to 91.6%, which is 25.3% below 2006.

Even though we are still seeing a decrease in the Midwest and the South, we must remember the slump in the housing market began in the North and this is where the change will begin to occur as the real estate market starts looking up.

Home sales at this time are up during this term and are believed to hit a total of around 5.67 million for 2006, which is the fifth highest on record. In 2006, there were 6.48 million homes sold. The median price of homes throughout 2007 is estimated to be around $217,600 for the entire country. Realtors and analysts both agree that homes sales will increase in 2008 and the amount is believed to hit around 5.60 million. It is also estimated that the median home price will rise 0.3 percent to end up around $218,300 for 2008.

The prediction for new home sales for 2007 is at 788,000 and heading downward to 693,000 for 2008. The median price for new homes is predicted to be around $239,100 in 2007, which is a 3.0% decrease and will decline 0.2% in 2008 bringing the median price to around $236,600 for 2008.

The trend for existing homes sales is predicted to head upward in 2008, however, new homes sales will more than likely not recover until 2009.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 8:40 am and is filed under San Diego Real Estate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.