CSBJ Daily

The National Association of Realtors sees a continued drop in median home prices, new home starts and resales in 2008.

For 2008, the forecast report released this week also anticipates a 31.1 percent drop in single-family housing starts, a 6.1 percent decline in new-home prices, a rise in housing affordability and a dip in consumer confidence this year compared to 2007.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for 2009, however.

The trade association’s researchers predicted that resale homes would see a 4.2 percent uptick in closings for 2009 as well as a 3.5 percent increase in selling prices, recovering from an “aggregate” 2008 sales price of $216,300 to $223,800 in 2009.

Likewise, next year new homes could see a sales turn-around, up as much as 7.2 percent from 2008. Median sales prices are also expected to go up from $232,000 this year, rising 5.1 percent to $244,100 in 2009.

Different areas of the country may experience recovery at different rates. Regionally the NAR’s Pending Sales Index for January 2008, for example, plunged 28 percent in the Northeast, 23.8 percent in the South, 13.3 percent in the Midwest and 12.7 percent in the West in January 2008 compared to January 2007.

In January the median sales price of a home in the Pikes Peak Region was $198,750, down 5.3 percent from a year earlier. February, however, saw a decline of more than 8 percent, in line with national trends.