June 14th, 2011 Categories: Market Updates
Last year’s federal tax credit may be long gone, but the effects are still with us when market statistics are reported. As a result, don’t panic – or rejoice – if you see headlines like the following:
- “Contracts in April Down 40% from April of Last Year” (the market continues to crater)
- “Contracts in May up 28% from Last Year” (the market is soaring! yeah!)
- “Sales in June significantly below Last Year” (again, cratering)
In early 2010, inventory was super low, and buyers went a little crazy and rushed to get homes under contract by April 30th. As a result, last year’s monthly metrics were really distorted. The chart below tells the tale. Until we’re well past monthly activity from early 2010, take any headline with a grain of salt.
Posted by Bruce Lemieux
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Market Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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[...] It’s a good thing, that’s for sure. However, comparing anything to 2010 is tricky given the effects of the federal tax credit. In this video, we review activity over the last five months and see how it compares to last [...]