Home sales jump in southern states

The National Association of Realtors says October's new-home sales shot up 23 percent over the prior year in the South, even in states such as foreclosure-plagued Florida.
At the same time as NAR released its monthly report on new-home sales, The Associated Press released its AP-Re/Max Housing Report on October re-sales of houses and condominiums. Sales increased in all 18 Southern metro markets it covers.
If accelerating home sales were the rule everywhere in the South, real-estate agents here might reasonably wonder whether Burke, Caldwell and Catawba counties somehow drifted north of the Mason-Dixon line.
"Our numbers don't look like the numbers you'd see elsewhere," said Bobbie McCombs, president of the Burke County Board of Realtors. "We've got a problem with jobs here now."
The paired problems – high unemployment and lower housing sales; both symptoms of the 23-month-long national recession – aren't unique to the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metropolitan area or, for that matter, to North Carolina. The metro area (Burke, Catawba, Caldwell and Alexander counties, sometimes called the Unifour) has had the state's highest unemployment rate for months. It's currently near 15 percent, but the statewide jobless rate has been climbing and now is above 11 percent.
By at least one measure – numbers of homes sold — the housing market isn't as depressed in the Unifour as in some other parts of North Carolina. The Burke County and Catawba Valley multiple listing services together cover much of this area. Their combined reports show the number of homes sold during the third calendar quarter in the Unifour was down about 5 percent versus an 8 percent decline statewide compared to the same three-month period in 2008.
Measured in dollars, however, the Unifour's home sales totaled 16 percent less than in the third-quarter of 2008. Statewide sales were down 14.6 percent.
Third-quarter sales plunged much more sharply in Burke County alone. According to the Burke County MLS, there were 87 single-family homes sold for a total of $10.3 million in July, August and September 2009, compared to 132 for more than $19.5 million in 2008.
"Buyers remain in charge here in Burke County," said McCombs who, in addition to being president of the Burke County Board of Realtors, is a sales agent for C. Ervin & Associates in Morganton. "The homes that are selling now are what the buyers perceive as a good value. There are many, many choices out there, so if a situation does not work out as the buyer thinks it should, they quickly move on to their next choice. There continues to be a lot of uncertainty about the economy and about jobs. And, making a home purchase is a big decision at any time."
McCombs said she and other local Realtors see many buyers she describes as "unmotivated," meaning they're shopping around, but not feeling any great compulsion or urgency to buy. Gone are the days, especially in the first two-thirds of this decade, when many people bought houses and condos not so much as homes as investments.
"We were in a market for a number of years when you made money on a home no matter what. We're not in that kind of market anymore," McCombs explained. "Fifteen years ago, you were told you had to stay in a house three to five years to break even or come out ahead. That's more of the reality we're in right now."
Financial motivation helped spur the increased sales in October, according to the National Association of Realtors and the AP-Re/Max Housing Report. Real estate agents from Texas to Maryland credited sales increases to low mortgage rates, affordable prices and the tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers. The latter incentive was set to die Nov. 30 before Congress extended it into next spring and added a $6,500 credit for current homeowners who move into another primary residence.
McCombs said the Burke County Board of Realtors last week discussed how members can do more to acquaint prospective buyers with the $6,500 tax credit (see sidebar story) as well as the facts of the first-time home buyer's tax credit. The Realtors see both as potentially powerful stimuli for the local housing market.
"The first-time homebuyer credit has been a motivator to bring new buyers into the market," McCombs said, "so the extension of that credit and the new $6,500 tax credit for homeowners who have been in their home for five years should bring even more serious buyers into the market."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.