INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE

INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE ... Last week, two parts of the housing market seemed to have difficulties. We start with Existing Home Sales, which dipped 2.8% in December, to a 5.49 million unit annual rate. But even with this monthly decline, 2016 was the best year in a decade for existing home sales. Sales of these single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops came in at 5.45 million units, their highest level since 2006. This happened even though supplies were low in many areas. Opportunity lies in rates still being near historically low, growing incomes and analyst expectations that the upward sales trend will continue.

Later in the week, New Home Sales came in down 10.4% for December, to a 536,000 annual rate. At first, this seemed like another difficulty. But home sales are volatile month-to-month (ask any realtor), and the year showed a different picture. In 2016, there were 563,000 new single-family home sales, up 12.2% from 2015 and the highest level for these sales since 2007. December's glitch can be seen as one more example of a housing market that's been recovering in fits and starts. Analysts see a shift back toward single-family homes and expect that any headwinds from modest rate and price increases will be offset by faster economic growth.