The housing bubble is thoroughly popped.
The price of existing homes sold in October fell for the third straight month and posted the biggest drop on record, an industry group said Tuesday, adding it expects weakness in pricing to drag on into next year.
The National Association of Realtors said that the median price of a home sold in October was $221,000, the same as in September, but down 3.5 percent from October 2005.
The previous record drop was a 2.1 percent decline in November 1990, the real estate group said.
While month-to-month declines in home prices are not uncommon, year-to-year drops had been rare before the recent housing slump.
August was the first month in 11 years to see such a decline. September was originally reported as a record 2.2 percent drop, but a revision in those numbers put that price decline at 1.8 percent.
anybody wanna buy some tulip bulbs or beanie babies?
In certain areas of CA, the drop in prices has been referred to as a “bloodbath” for the sellers. Lots of upside-down sales, foreclosures and tons of inventory that’s moving at half the speed it moved last year.
A listing of mine is in an area that dropped 7.9% YOY. I expect it to drop further.
It’s ugly. 40% of our sales last year were to investors – they’re gone now. The only ones buying are those who must buy – the rest are tucked in at home, waiting for the market to fall even further. They’re in no hurry – there’s lots of inventory and as long as they’re waiting, the market will continue to drop until the wait-n-see’ers decide to act.