From what I have seen, this is driven by sales in the lower end where foreclosures abound and prices are way down.
I think this is really bad news for the higher end. If there is so much price disparity to cause a large sales surge at the low end, it will have the long-term effect of sucking buyers away from the nicer areas and eventually depressing prices. This has been a long time coming and I think this big jump in sales at the low end may signal it is finally happening.
That is, the pain train is heading “uptown” very soon. This, combined with the October credit crash, means we are a mere month or two away from the first set of “holy shit” data that will flow until Spring.
