A Couple of Fun Facts...

Just a few minor updates to report on the current real estate market...

- An index of home prices shows improvement for the sixth month in a row and prices in all 20 cities rose from June to July.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities released a couple of days ago rose 1.2 percent from June. Though home prices are still 13.3 percent below July a year ago, they have risen for three months straight.

This is good news and although we are nowhere near the home prices at the peak of the market in 2006, I am confident that slowly but surely things will start to turn around for residential real estate.

- The volume of signed contracts to buy existing homes rose for the seventh straight month in August. I'm assuming this was because people were rushing to take advantage of the tax credit (please oh please, federal lawmakers, renew this program)!

The National Association of Realtors says its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements rose 6.4 percent from July to 103.8. It was the highest since March 2007 and 12 percent above a year ago. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index would rise to 98.6.
Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer of future sales.

Let's hear it for the....market!

**Oh and by the way, I got my facts and figures from articles published in the Richmond Times Dispatch, so they get the credit!