Sales of existing homes down in December - not for long

I was quite surprised to hear that the sales of existing homes was down almost 1% in December from the year before. Most of my collegues and I were busy during the second half of December. I was NOT surprised to learn that NEW home sales were down in December, however.

Despite these two statistics that caught many people by surprise, I am predicting that January's figures will jump considerably. From current activity - listing appointments I am going on this week and next, and contracts that are being written - I think January will show a significant increase over December, and over the previous January.

Our volume of showings of current listing is approximately double the number of appointments over last week. We have also sold two properties this week - and surprisingly the two that sold are properties that we took off the market for the winter months to give them a break after a slow October through December.

Check back on February 20th, or thereabouts, and we'll see if our predictions hold true or if we were off the mark.

UPDATE: Mortgage Broker Dan Green notes that the number of shiny new contracts being brought into his office this week is greater than all the contracts brought his way in the LAST THREE WEEKS.