| | 04/05/2011
NAR President Tom Stevens on NBC's Today Show
On March 2, 2006, NAR President Tom Stevens discussed the state of the U.S. housing market with CNBC's Carl Quintanilla.
Read REALTOR® Magazine's coverage, watch the segment on: MSNBC.com, or here: 1) broadband 4.5 Mb, 2) 56Kb modem 1Mb
(roughly 1 minute 49 seconds viewing, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Media Player required), or read the transcript (below):
KATIE COURIC: For months, economists have warned that the once red-hot housing market is due to cool off. Now, some new numbers suggest the big chill may actually be here.
Here’s CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla.
CARL QUINTANILLA: The signs may say for sale, but the buyers just aren’t coming. The number of existing homes sold in January fell more than five percent from last year. That’s five straight months of declines, and it has many wondering if the housing market is cooling or crashing.
TOM STEVENS [President, National Association of Realtors]: There has been a lot of talk about the hard landing and the bubble.
QUINTANILLA: Tom Stevens is president of the National Association of Realtors and says he isn’t worried. Interest rates are still relatively low, and the homes that do sell are going for more than they were last January, nearly 12 percent more.
STEVENS: If we started seeing a lot of homes, people selling homes for less than they paid for them, and we really haven’t seen that yet.
QUINTANILLA: Try telling that to Mike Kessler, a Los Angeles realtor who has been working to get this $900,000 home off the market for two months.
MIKE KESSLER [Realtor]: Now, there’s really a lot of inventory available, a lot of homes on the markets, and they’re staying on the market a little longer than before.
QUINTANILLA: Builders of new homes are even throwing in incentives like free appliances and landscaping, and yet one in five say they’re seeing more orders for homes get cancelled. Of course, for the 30 percent of families who don’t own a home, the slowdown is good news, a sign they may finally stop being priced out of the market, but that’s little reassurance for those still trying to sell.
STEVENS: Just because the neighbor might have sold their home two months ago and realized a 40 percent gain in a period of a year or two years, I think they have to evaluate, you know, what they need to do to get that home sold based on the competition in the marketplace.
QUINTANILLA: This spring, the showdown may be between buyers who take their time and sellers who feel they’re running out of it.
For Today, Carl Quintanilla, NBC News, New York.
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