Sales of new homes climb for 2nd month in row

[impik]

WASHINGTON - Sales of new homes posted another large gain in April as buyers rushed to sign contracts before government tax credits expired.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales of new single-family homes jumped 14.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units. The April gain followed a 29.8 percent surge in March, the biggest monthly increase in 47 years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37353768/ns/business-real_estate/

[babylonsister]

1. More good news, rec'd. nt

[grasswire]

2. not sustainable, though

it's only due to the now expired tax credits. And the prices were lower than expected.

[golfguru]

3. Hey come on....stop injecting facts and reality into this

just get with it and post only optimistic opinions.

[impik]

4. How sad.

[babylonsister]

6. You must have missed some facts-see post #5. nt

[babylonsister]

5. Not exactly-you must have missed this...

"The upswing in April existing-home sales was expected because of the tax credit inducement, and no doubt there will be some temporary fallback in the months immediately after it expires, but other factors also are supporting the market," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "For people who were on the sidelines, there's been a return of buyer confidence with stabilizing home prices, an improving economy and mortgage interest rates that remain historically low."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8405374
Existing home sales soar in April

[grasswire]

10. from the article linked in OP

Housing sales were pushed higher this spring by a stampede of buyers trying to sign sales contracts before tax credits expired on April 30. Historically low mortgage rates also helped fuel purchases. But sales are expected to slump in the coming months as households deal with slow job growth and tight credit.

[babylonsister]

11. Leave it to you to find the cloud in the silver lining.

What that link 'speculates' about doesn't mean this isn't good news.

[grasswire]

13. I am only interested in the whole story, the whole of the truth.

I have seen the damage that comes to people who are prisoners of hope -- who irrationally accept any glimmer that supports their position. That's what freepers do.

[babylonsister]

14. The whole story won't be known for awhile, so unless you believe

in crystal balls, you'll have to wait. And you comparing people to freepers on this site is even beneath you.

[HughMoran]

7. True, but lower prices and a slowly recovering market

...isn't a bad thing for people looking to get into a house for the first time.

[Cha]

8. We'll see won't we..for now this is good news.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. Sadly, I wasn't included in those numbers. But my fingers are still crossed...

that I'll be a statistic soon. Rec for good news.

[tranche]

12. That is good, but we will have to see how these numbers look mid summer.

Unlike some I don't cheer on the bad news, but of course I want to see these numbers come summer. Business "feels" better to me, but housing, I just don't feel good about it (maybe because I'm starting to think about buying). The prices are just still out of the realm of affordability (at least in my neck of the woods).

This is good, and it's probably putting some people to work, but I want to see these numbers around summer time. That being said, this super cold Christmas probably kept a lot of people buying homes.