Existing-home sales down just slightly here

Existing-home sales in the eight-county Philadelphia area in August fell just 0.6 percent from the same month in 2008 - the smallest year-to-year decline in several months.

Yesterday's Prudential Fox & Roach HomExpert Market Report, using data from the Trend Multiple Listing Service, showed 4,703 houses changed hands in the region last month, compared with 4,733 in August 2008.

The median sale price fell 6.8 percent, to $219,000 from $234,900, and average days on the market increased to 83 from 72.

The pace of year-over-year home-sale declines has eased since January, when they were down 30.1 percent.

Nationally, sales rose 3.4 percent in August from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported. While sales were lower in August than in July, NAR officials said they assumed the recent surge in buying had resulted in a settlement backlog.

IHS Global Insight Inc. housing economist Patrick Newport called the national numbers "surprisingly weak," but he added that he could not come up with a better reason than that of the NAR.

Joel L. Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors suggested, "We are in the infancy of the recovery. . . . Don't expect the data to move upward smoothly."

Much of the sales activity is being attributed to a rush by qualified first-time home buyers to snag the $8,000 federal tax credit before it expires Nov. 30.

The credit appears to have boosted Cherry Hill sales last month, up 8.2 percent from August 2008. While the increase was just six houses - 79 vs. 73 - the buyers were overwhelmingly young first-timers, said Prudential Fox & Roach's Sandy Levenson, who has been selling in the township for 31 years.

"Because of the credit's income limits, they're buying from the mid-$100s for small condos to the low $300s," she said. "That gives a chance for people to finally move up, and empty nesters to sell as well."

"I can guarantee that there will be a lot of settlements Nov. 30," Levenson said.