Falls sales fizzle?
The latest homes sales numbers are out and they look tough.
Pending home sales - contracts signed but not closed yet - fell 2 percent in October over September across the state, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reports.
Instead of hitting open houses and putting houses under agreement as the fall market kicked in, home buyers instead appear to be taking a step back.
Nationally, pending sales fell 4.6 percent in September from August, the National Association of Realtors reports.
In its release, MAR plays up the fact that pending sales, year over year, are actually up 6.2 percent over October, 2010. The same is true for the national numbers, which were 6.4 percent higher in September compared to September, 2010.
But it's hard to wring any great meaning out of that - after all home sales had collapsed last year, both locally and nationally, with the end of the $8,000 home buyer tax credit.
If anything, a 6.2 percent rise over last year's anemic levels is a matter of concern, not celebration.
