Chris Gmyr

In many areas, people are still struggling to keep their homes out of foreclosure and struggling to pay their bills, but in other areas the tax credit and the economy are actually helping existing homes to sell more than expected. Every region seems to be benefiting from this except for the west where sales dropped 6.2 percent in March. In this real estate market, it really does make a difference where you live.

The National Association of Realtors said on Monday, that sales of previously owned or existing homes rose 7.6 percent and that this averages out to be an adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million. These have been the best results in five months and this has seemed to inspire a rise in home prices which are now at a median price of $173,000 which is up four percent from last year.

These changes seem to be a result of the federal government giving the housing market a boost with the first time home buyer tax credit of $8,000. The Northeast saw gains of 21.1 percent and the Midwest saw gains of 9.9 percent. Finally, the south saw gains of 8.6 percent.

Now that the tax credit has expired though, ending on April 30th, there may be some drops in these numbers. Many people feel however, that this tax credit and other areas of the economy improving have helped to restore confidence in consumers and they will be more willing and likely to buy homes or to refinance an existing home in the coming months. Some advice for real estate agents might be to act now while consumers may still be willing to buy.