Naysayers

For those who refuse to believe that the housing market in the majority of areas and/or price ranges in Massachusetts has bottomed and is beginning to improve, here are some statistics recently released by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors:

The median single family home price for June 2009 was $306,000. This is the first time the median home price has been over $300,000 since August 2008. Moreover, the June 2009 median price is up 21% from its low of $252,000 in February of this year. With that said, this is still a decrease of 8.6% year over year (June 2009 compared to June 2008). As a frame of reference, consider today's prices to be in line with those of 2003. (Source:MAR)

In my opinion, the more important - and thus more impressive - turnaround has been in residential home inventory. (Home inventory is based on a fiction wherein we assume no more homes will become available for sale. In that instance, at the then current rate of sales, how long would it take to sell all the homes on the market at that point and time? The answer represents the "home inventory".) A decrease of 16% in inventory from June 30, 2008 as compared to June 30, 2009 should markedly improve real estate sales conditions. As of June 30 of this year, inventory was at 7.2 months. This is actually considered to be at the low end of the spectrum for inventory levels in a healthy market. (Source: MAR)

In short - and I am not a fan of statistical data - one cannot deny that these numbers show an improvement in the housing market. If you prefer to rely on perception/consumer sentiment as do I (statistics are, by definition, backward looking), pick up a newspaper or turn on the news. Fewer and fewer of the real estate related stories are solely negative. This could not be said three months ago. In fact, as I write this, the story on CNBC relates to the drastic rebound in stock values of home builders.