CAPITAL REGION Region’s home sales tumble 15 percent for 2008 BY JAMES SCHLETT Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter James Schlett at 395-3040 or jschlett@dailygazette.net.
So much for the soft landing. The housing slump and recession conspired last year to send home sales in the greater Capital Region to their lowest level in eight years. Closed single-family home sales tumbled 15 percent to 8,337 in 2008, according to statistics released Monday by the Greater Capital Association of Realtors, a Colonie trade organization. The monthly GCAR report also showed that for the first time in 11 years, area home values gave ground an annual basis. The region’s median sale price last year slipped 1 percent to $191,000, Monday’s announcement caps a new low for the region’s housing market, but sales results for December suggest the worst is far from over and home values are losing their resiliency to downward pressures. As banks clamped down on lending and unemployment locally shot up to 5.9 percent, the region in December experienced one of its most severe monthly pricing corrections. The area’s median sale price for December was $182,500, down 6 percent from a year earlier. During the same period, home sales fell 17 percent to 587. Most counties ended the year with flat home values, but Montgomery County dragged down the average by posting an 11 percent decline to $97,500. Sales regionwide fell to their lowest level since 2000, when they totaled 8,243. The area also saw its first annual decline in its median sale price since 1997, when values slumped 1 percent to $110,600, according to GCAR statistics. Last year’s results marked a stark decline from the peak levels the local market hit in 2006, when sales totaled 10,524 and the median sale price was $189,000. It was in 2006 when the National Association of Realtors’ then-chief economist, David Lereah, began forecasting a “soft landing” for the post-boom housing market. However, the nation’s market fell harder than the Capital Region’s market in 2008. Closed single-family home sales nationwide totaled 4.3 million last year, down 11.9 percent from a year earlier. During the same period, the U.S. median sale price slumped 9.5 percent to $197,100. Looking for a.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00402
Anybody notice that while Schoharie County had more of a loss as a percentage in sales than Schenectady County, 19% vs. 16%, the total loss on the number of sales in Schenectady County from 2007 to 2008 (253) is more than the total number of sales in either year in Schoharie County (199 or 247).
Liberty...this is old news. News that the media spit out for just a fleeting moment and was never heard about again. Well maybe a few more times on FOX. Other than that....it was hushed right up!!!
The banks were told that if they didn't give these loans out, than they would put the banks out of business. Mortagage brokers got a percentage of the mortages they sold....EVEN....if they went sour in less than a year. There was money being made hand over fist by all involved! And Barney Frank was the king at the helm!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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