Decline in for-sale homes brings more good real estate news

The past month has already brought us plenty of positive news for the real estate industry.

The homebuyer tax credit was approved in the economic stimulus package by the Senate; judging by predictors, home sales are currently on verge of an increase; and home sales unexpectedly rebounded in December.

In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported that the inventory of homes for sale has declined. The article, which can be found here, was released two days ago, and I'm amazed that I have not found anyone in the industry that's really talking about it.

In 2008 a widely-discussed topic at real estate conventions was how to improve home sales when the amount of homes on the market was reaching record highs. Prices had not dropped enough for buyers to start buying, and the growing inventory was like the proverbial groundhog spotting his shadow--six more weeks (or, more likely, two more years) of a bad real estate market!

But now, "The supply of homes available for sale in 29 major metropolitan areas at the end of January was down 2.5% from a month earlier," the article stated. The kicker is, this happened in a month that historically sees for-sale homes increasing in supply.

With supply getting lower, demand should soon increase, particularly after the homebuyer tax credit is approved completely and word is spread to consumers.

All in all, this makes for a lot more good news for the real estate industry.

Contact Sean Cutright with questions and comments at scutright@deltagroup.com.