Wednesday, December 14, 2011

National Association of Realtors: Housing Market Worse Than Previously Reported

By Susan Duclos

The National Association of Realtors are revising erroneous reports dating back to 2007 on previously owned home sales.

CNBC explains:

Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought.

The National Association of Realtors said a benchmarking exercise had revealed that some properties were listed more than once, and in some instances, new home sales were also captured.

"All the sales and inventory data that have been reported since January 2007 are being downwardly revised. Sales were weaker than people thought," NAR spokesman Walter Malony told Reuters.

"We're capturing some new home data that should have been filtered out and we also discovered that some properties were being listed in more than one list."


The actual figures are due to be published next Wednesday.

.