Existing-home sales rose in August

Moving activity last month may have spurred rising existing-home sales, according to a new report.

The National Association of Realtors reported that 4.13 million units were sold in August, a 7.6 percent increase from an upwardly revised July total of 3.84 million. Existing-home sales were still 19 percent lower than the 5.1 million sales pace set a year ago, said the report, but it was nonetheless encouraging to see moving activity increase even without the support of buyer incentives like the homebuyer tax credit.

"Home values have shown stabilizing trends over the past year, even as the economy shed millions of jobs, because of the homebuyer tax credit stimulus," said the NAR's chief economist, Lawrence Yun. "Now that the economy is adding some jobs, the housing market needs to steadily improve and eventually stand on its own."

NAR president Vicki Cox Golder added that analysts need to maintain realistic expectations of housing moving forward. Tight credit and slow-moving short sales are still delaying many people's moving plans, she said, and contributing to a weak housing market.

Legislative steps are being taken to hasten the short sale process through a bill currently in the House, an effort that the NAR recently hailed. If lenders were quicker to approve short sales, that would accelerate relocation plans and help weed through much of the country's backlog of distressed properties, said the NAR.
 

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