US Home Sales Data Signal End to Boom

NATION/BUSINESS

COMMENTARY
Having just sold a house in Mobile, Alabama, for an unheard of above asking price offer, and now looking for digs in the sticker-shocked DC metro area, I'll be interested to see how far I can lowball my price if the housing market is truly slowing down.

I'll kid you not though, Gulf Coast housing prices were so low that I lived like a third-world king down in L.A. (lower Alabama, as the natives call it). Sadly, I'd miss the area even more than I already do if it hadn't been for last year's hurricanes.

The sooner the press starts pounding this story and others like it, the sooner it will become a housing buyer's market (and I can check out of the hotel I'm holed up in).

NEWSLINE
"Housing activity has peaked," said David Lereah, chief economist for the association. But he insisted the market will not implode after years of red-hot growth. "There are no balloons popping."

NEWSBYTE
US home sales data signal end to boom
(Reuters) Sales of existing US homes dropped 1.7 percent in November while the stock of unsold homes on the market climbed to a 19-year high, the National Association of Realtors said. Admitting a slowdown is now under way, the industry group said existing home sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.97 million last month, the lowest since March. Read full story.

TENSION: Not a bust
GRAVITY: Not around the Gulf Coast

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