The Morning Report
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In the month of April, the number of existing homes sold in San Diego fell 7.4 percent from the prior month and 6.3 percent from April 2009. As I speculated in the last entry, the drop in sales may be a result of buyers purposely delaying their closing dates so that they can “double dip” on both the state and federal buyer tax credits. If true, then sales activity would rise accordingly next month.
Perhaps more interesting from the long-term perspective is the fact that inventory rose strongly again, up by 5.3 percent for the month and 8.4 percent from last year. The accompanying graph shows that this is really the first robust multi-month increase in inventory since 2007. If this trend continues, the increased supply of homes for sale could moderate the upward pricing pressure that we’ve been seeing for much of the past year.
— RICH TOSCANO