Continued record low interest rates? A more confident consumer? Voters happy to have their voices heard? Whatever it was, December was a much happier month across many of Terradatum’s Top 40 Markets.

Unit Sales of Residential Single Family Homes were up 13.7% over November!  While unit sales were still about 4% below December 2009, the large uptick should bring some positive momentum to the markets.  And the good news wasn’t focused on one or two cities or regions but spread across the country.

Prices Continue to Retreat…But that May be the Best News of All

At the same time, the prices for sold properties decreased across our sample cities in December (versus November).  Overall, Median Prices for Sold Properties inched downward by just 0.2%.   Prices for Sold properties were just below the year before numbers (i.e., December 2009 levels) declining by 2.2.  This may be the best news in the we certainly do not want to see a major run up in prices just as volumes tick up, thereby scaring away next month’s buyers.  And we also don’t want to see a large drop in prices creating any unnecessary panic in the market.  Let prices stabilize as needed so that the market can begin to function again.  The price swings across the markets were small (mostly up/down by less than 2%) with no market’s Median Price changing by more than 9%.  The largest increases were seen in: St Louis (+6.8%), Houston (+5.2%) and Richmond VA (4.7%).  The most significant decreases to Median Prices of Sold Properties were seen in: Raleigh-Durham (-9.0%), Manchester NH (-5.5%) and Hartford CT (-4.4%).

Let’s see if we can keep this rally going!