Home Sales Plunge in February--Does this impact the Triangle? (month to, prices)

[jackiekt]

CNBC reports that sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell unexpectedly in February and prices touched their lowest level in nearly nine years. News Headlines (http://www.cnbc.com/id/42192395/ - broken link)

Obviously, the scope of this report was national. But it got me thinking about the Triangle. How does this impact the local market--are we breaking or mirroring the national trend?

[KCfromNC]

Feb 2011 sales were 2.5% lower than Feb 2010. Sales for the year are down about the same amount. Sales in Feb 2011 were about 8% higher than Jan 2011 - this is a bit lower than the average increase from Jan to Feb but nothing significant.

Overall it's still a weak market - basically the same as 2009 and 2010 so far. But at least it doesn't seem to be getting worse.

Winter sales have a lot to do with weather, so I wouldn't read too much into a one month drop. Often a bad Feb (due to lots of snow or whatever) will be followed by a big bounce up in March. Plus volumes are relatively low this time of year anyway so whatever happens now will be dwarfed by the results from the spring. What's being reported may just be normal month to month noise rather than a trend, so stay tuned.