The National Association of Realtors published its monthly sales data and reported that sales actually increased from January to February. Apparently many prognosticators and forecasters were looking for a decrease. I would hope we’ll continue to see month over month increases as we move all the way to summer.
What the headlines don’t say is that sales volume is down 23% compared to the same period last year and home prices are down 8%.
It’s not rocket science, and I have said this time and time again…if we want to get this housing market turned around, sellers need to lower their prices and we’ll see sales activity pick up which will have a massive ripple effect throughout the economy.
Calculated Risk has a good analysis on the data released today. This chart below shows just how far sales volume has fallen in ’08 compared to ’07.
Calculated Risk has built a nice chart of housing inventory:
 
There is no way we’re going to lower the inventory levels without having a sale. Think Macys. Think Ford. When they need to move traffic, they have a sale.