Sales of existing homes in the Triad metropolitan area decreased 21 percent in January from a year ago, closely reflecting the national housing market.
Sales were 801 in January, compared with 1,013 in January 2007, according to the N.C. Association of Realtors. The January sales also were down 27 percent from 1,102 in December 2007.
Nationally, sales fell 23.4 percent last month compared with January 2007.
In the 11-county Triad area, the average sales price decreased 6 percent in January to $166,116, compared with $176,469 for the same period a year ago.
Statewide, existing-home sales fell 22 percent to 6,524 and the average sales price was down 2 percent, to $208,763.
Don Jud, a professor emeritus in the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNC Greensboro, said that although the Triad housing market has not had it as bad as some parts of the country, it is starting to move downward, more in line with the national housing market.
"It looks like we are seeing the downside," Jud said. "I don't think we've hit bottom because I don't think we've gotten the situation straightened out in the financial markets. Banks are still afraid to lend on real estate, terms are getting tighter and tighter. There are still a lot of foreclosures."
In Forsyth County in January, there were 245 sales of existing homes, compared with 317 for the same period in 2007, a 23 percent decrease, according to data from the Winston-Salem Regional Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
Glenn Cobb, the executive vice president of the association, said that sales accelerated pretty strongly through 2005, with 5,702 sales, and 2006 with 5,785 sales, an all-time high.
Those numbers compare with 5,357 existing home sales in 2007, the third-highest year on record for sales in Forsyth County.
"You're not going to sustain those historically high numbers," Cobb said. "So we started seeing it backing off the last half of 2007."
Cobb said that there is some strengthening in the number of houses sold for more than $150,000 but not a significant amount. However, he said, houses of $120,000 or less are showing softness.
Bud Kiger, a broker in the Winston-Salem office for Yost & Little, said that the housing industry is quiet at the moment.
"It's not making the kind of waves that we thought that it would even with the lower interest rates that have happened over the last two or three months," Kiger said. "It's the general slowdown that appears throughout the economy."
Industry people said that some consumers are reluctant to get off the sidelines.
"Even though the ability to obtain a mortgage has tightened up, it has only tightened up for those individuals who have less-than-desirable credit ratings right now," Kiger said.
"If they have reasonably good credit ratings and they have 5 percent, 10 percent, up to 20 percent down, then it's the best time that we've had in years to obtain and purchase a home," he said.
The biggest effect on business at Shugart Enterprises LLC, a home builder based in Winston-Salem, is coming from the resale market.
Grover Shugart, the company's president, said that 35 percent to 40 percent of its business is "empty-nesters" who are trying to downsize into town homes.
"Every one of them pretty much has a house to sell," he said.
Shugart Enterprises is giving people more time to reserve lots in some of its subdivisions while they try to sell their existing homes.
"We're not actually starting a unit until they have sold their house," Shugart said.
Traffic at Shugart Enterprises from potential homebuyers has picked up in the past 30 days from a somewhat slow period in January, he said.
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