More Sellers Refuse to Lower List Prices

According to Trulia.com, more sellers are holding firm on their asking price. The number of home owners reducing their list price at least once was down to only 21% as of January 1st. That percentage was 22% in December and 25.6% in November. In addition the number of cities reporting average price cuts of 30% or more was down by 50% this month, with the average price reduction nationally hovering around 11%.

What does this mean? Is enough finally enough? Are prices finally bottoming out? We're not out of the woods yet, but it's my humble opinion that we are definitely on our way.

Source: National Association of Realtors

Pending Home Sales Higher Than Last Year

More good news for the housing market! According to the Pending Home Sales Index (a popular index for predicting the housing market) pending sales have increased since this same time last year.

The Run-Down:

1. Northeast up 14.7%
2. Midwest up 9.2%
3. South up 14.7%
4. West up 21.4%

Pretty interesting stats. Not out of the woods yet, but things are definitely looking up!

source: realtor.org

Raleigh 6th in Recovery!

According to Forbes Magazine, Raleigh has the 6th fastest housing marketing recovery out of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas. This is wonderful news for our City of Oaks. Let's turn the corner into 2010 and leave that dismal recession behind us, shall we?

Here is the top ten list out of that 100:

1. Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.
2. Austin-Round Rock, Texas
3. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah
4. Buffalo, N.Y.
5. Knoxville, Tenn.
6. Raleigh, N.C.
7. San Antonio, Texas
8. Syracuse, N.Y.
9. Salt Lake City, Utah(Tied)
10. Moline, Ill.
10. St. Louis10. Wichita, Kan.
10. Rochester, N.Y.

Source: Forbes, Francesca Levy (12/09/2009)