NAR Releases 4th Quarter Stats

This week NAR released its fourth quarter 2009 housing stats revealing some solid and very positive results including:

·Home sales posted strong gains in the fourth quarter and prices rose in nearly 45% of U.S. metropolitan areas compared with a year earlier, more evidence of an improving climate in housing.

·Bolstered by low interest rates and a first-time home buyer tax credit, existing-home sales rocketed 27.2% from the fourth quarter of 2008 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.03.

·The national median price of an existing single-family home was $172,900 or 4.1% below the median price in fourth quarter 2008. That was the smallest price decline in more than two years.

·Prices rose in 67 out of 151 metro areas in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier.

·Sixteen areas had double-digit increases last quarter.