New Year End Numbers From The NAR

National home sales for December jumped 6.5% over Novembers output, but still 3.5% down from December of 2007. For all of 2008, there were about 4.9 million existing home sales, which is 13.1% below the 5.65 million transactions recorded in 2007. This is the lowest volume since 1997 when there were 4,371,000 sales.

Total houseing inventory at the end of December fell 11.7% to 3.68 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 9.3 month supply nationally at the current sales pace. This is down from the 11.2 month supply reported in November.

Existing Home Sales By Region:

Northeast: slipped 1.4% in December over November numbers and are 14.3% below December 2007. The median price in the Northeast was $235,000 which is -7.8% from a year ago.

Midwest: Increased 4% in December over November but is -10.3% for the year. The median price in the Midwest was $140,800, which is -11.4% from December 2007.

South: Increased 7.4% in December over November, but is down 11.2% from December 2007. The median price in the South was $158,600 which is down 8% from a year ago.

West: Increased 13.6% in December over November, and are up 31.6% for the year. The median price in the west was $213,100 which is down 31.5% from a year ago.