The National Association of Realtors reported today that the sales rate for previously owned homes rose 12.3 percent in December 2010 compared to the previous month, but dropped 2.9 percent compared to December 2009. However, there were an estimated 4.91 million sales of existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops in 2010 which is down close to 5 percent from the 5.16 million sales in 2009.
NAR also reported that regionally, total existing-home sales dropped 1.5 percent in the West year-over-year in December, with the median price falling to 5.6 percent.
Furthermore, first-time buyers purchased an estimated 33 percent of homes in December, compared with 32 percent in November and 43 percent in December 2009.
According to Freddie Mac the national average interest rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage, compared with 4.3 percent in November, was up to 4.71 percent in December.