Is the 2009 Housing Market Getting Any Better?
We’ve all heard the news that existing home sales in December 2009 surprisingly increased. Previously owned homes in the US increased 6.5% to a 4.74-million-unit annual sales rate, according to the National Association of Realtors. This was very surprising considering most analysts had predicted sales at a 4.40 million unit pace. Some analysts say that this could be a sign that the bottom is near., although the spark was mostly due to distressed foreclosure sales in states like California and Florida.
Not everyone agrees that the housing market is anywhere near the bottom. According to James R. Hagerty of the Wall Street Journal, economic indicators show that the housing market is not looking any better for spring 2009. Dave Johnson and James Boyce of the Huffington Post believes that there is another entirely new bubble on the horizon that they refer to as the double bubble.
It seems for every analyst predicting an upswing there is an antagonist waiting in the wings to disagree. Heck! That’s a 50/50 chance that it could swing either way. Those odds are a lot better than at this time last year.
