The mortgage market crunch is expected to further dampen home sales — postponing a potential housing market recovery until at least 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors.NAR senior economist Lawrence Yun said tighter credit standards have had a notable impact on sales, especially in August and September. However, the association does expect sales to rise next year.Existing-home sales are projected to reach 5.92 million in 2007 and climb to 6.27 million in 2008. That’s compared with 6.48 million sales in 2006. The median price for an existing home is expected to drop 1.7 percent this year to $218,200 then rise 2.2 percent to $223,000 in 2008, according to NAR.Some local experts say, however, that hoping for a recovery next year may be too optimistic. There are still more than 50,000 existing homes for sale in the Valley. Both the new and resale home markets will continue to feel the crunch until that excess inventory is whittled down. Some industry observers have even said the market may not see signs of recovery until 2009.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.