Taking A Look At The National Housing Stats As We Head Into The Prime Selling Season

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

My National Association or Realtors (NAR) reports that existing home sales in March rose 3.7% over February’s stats. The numbers were down 6.3% however when compared to March of last year. But we were still in the tax credit era at that time, so it’s not a real fair comparison to gauge last March against today’s real estate market. Comparing March stats to February’s however does bring better news to Kansas City home sellers as we head into the prime home selling season.

Existing home sales have in fact risen in all but 2 of the last 8 months. That’s great news. A NAR survey shows that 33% of homes purchased in March were bought by First Time Home Buyers. NAR also reports the average existing home price in March was just under $160,000 — an almost 6% drop from March of 2010 – and an astounding 40% of total sales were distressed properties, such as bank foreclosures and short sales.