November, was the 3rd month in a row home sales rose and are up 44% over November,2008, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Sale ares up 7.4 percent compared to October 2009.

Regionally, the sales rate rose 53.5% in the Midwest, 52.7%in the Northeast, 44.8% in the South and 28.1%  in the West compared to November, 2008.  NAR attributed the “expected” rise to “a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out” on a federal tax credit.

The Philadelphia Market ranked in The Top 10 with a 78% growth (see chart).

The median sales price of resale homes was down 4.3 percent, to $172,600, in November compared to November 2008. Regionally, the median price slipped 13.1% in the Northeast, 4.1% in the West, 1.4% in the South and 0.4% in the Midwest year-over-year in November.

The months’ supply of resale homes for sale was down 40.9 percent in November 2009 compared to November 2008, at 6.5 months This statistic is a measure of how many months it would take to deplete the for-sale inventory at a given month’s sales pace. An inventory of six months can represent a rough equilibrium between a buyer’s market and seller’s market, with a lesser inventory representing a buyer’s market.

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