Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, told the organization’s members that he believes the residential real estate market in the US will begin to improve modestly in 2010. Speaking at the association’s annual conference in San Diego on November 12, Yun projected that housing sales will improve from 5 million total homes sold in 2009 to 5.7 million in 2010, and prices will stabilize and potentially improve slightly over the year.
Yun cites pent-up demand, which he says is gradually luring first-time buyers into the market. Lower prices and the federal tax credit for first-time buyers have helped encourage home purchases this year; Yun and his association successfully lobbied for an extension of the credit through mid-2010.
(Source: AP read the original story here.)
Of course, a national view can mask what’s happening in individual local markets, which can move towards recovery more slowly in some cases, and some economists think the current uptick is due more to seasonal buying patterns and the tax credit than a real underlying recovery. Still, other data, including the Case-Schiller index, which rose a bit in June, July and August, supports Yun’s analysis. And, Forbes reports that many important markets, including the largest metropolitan areas in CA, have likely already hit bottom.