A real estate trade group revised its industry forecast Wednesday, predicting that the downward momentum of the national market will quicken before the year ends.
The National Association of Realtors now expects sales of existing homes to drop 4.6 percent this year to 6.2 million. Two months ago, the group predicted a 2.2 percent decline.
Sales of new homes are forecast to drop 18.2 percent to 860,000 compared with an earlier estimate of a 14.2 percent decline, and the median price of existing homes will fall in 2007 for the first time since the 1960s, when the group began keeping records.
The revisions surprised some local players.
McCabe thinks that out of all real estate related trade organizations, the NAR has been “last to the dance” to admit what’s truly going on in the “real” real estate world.
“It’s hard for them to admit the declines in many U.S. markets, including most in Florida, especially when the association is in the midst of a $40 million publicity campaign to convince the American public that it’s “Time2buy,” he said, referring to a recent promotional push by Realtors.
STEPHEN FRATER, International Herald Tribune
