September is showing some bright light on all the bad news we have had in recent months.. A report recently released states that sales of existing homes rose 10% in September. This is very encouraging news as September is the second month that has shown gains in sales of existing homes.

According to The National Association of Realtors, existing home sales rose 10% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.53 million, from a downwardly revised 4.12 million in August. 
 
“A housing recovery is taking place but will be choppy at times depending on the duration and impact of a foreclosure moratorium. But the overall direction should be a gradual rising trend in home sales with buyers responding to historically low mortgage interest rates and very favorable affordability conditions,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.

MarketWatch recenlty had interviewed economist that had anticipated a smaller gain but sales are 19% below the 5.6 million unit pace in September 2009, when first-time buyers were ramping up in advance of the initial deadline for the tax credit last November.

With all the dismal news on the real estate market, this is an encouraging trend that hopefully will continue for the upcoming months! Let us know your predictions on the future of real estate.

/kh