“These are ‘PC’ figures — pre-crunch,” said Larson.
I like his style of change of epoch. Pre-crunch and post-crunch. Like the size of Zipped files on a PC.
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……”Forget ‘location, location, location.’ The most important factor in today’s real estate market is ‘supply, supply, supply,'” said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at with independent research firm Weiss Research.
“We are literally swimming in an ocean of homes for sale. In fact, at 4.59 million units, we have the most raw inventory for sale in history,” he said. “Until we work through this extremely large inventory glut, we’re not going to see any momentum in home prices.”
Even the Realtors’ own economist admitted that problems in the mortgage market will continue to take a toll on home sales.
“Home sales probably would be rising in the absence of the mortgage liquidity issues of the past two months,” said Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s senior economist.
“Some buyers with contracts have been scrambling when loan commitments did not materialize at the last moment, while other potential buyers are simply waiting for the mortgage market to stabilize.”
August has seen problems in the mortgage market cut deeply into the availability of financing for many buyers, particularly those needing subprime mortgages due to credit rating issues or a jumbo mortgage of more than $417,000.
The existing home sale numbers track sales that closed in the month. Closings typically occur a month or two after buyers lock in financing.
“These are ‘PC’ figures — pre-crunch,” said Larson. “The mortgage credit crunch that began very late in July and picked up steam in August will likely put more downward pressure on home sales and prices this month and into the fall.”……….
