The National Association of Realtors released January numbers today, here are some snippets:

Existing-home sales…slipped 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units in January from an upwardly revised level of 4.91 million in December, and are 23.4 percent below the 6.44 million-unit pace in January 2007.

In other words, flat to December, but down dramatically from 2007.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $201,100 in January, down 4.6 percent from a year ago when the median was $210,900. 

That's ugly but hardly the catastrophe the press is making it out to be.

In the West, existing-home sales declined 2.1 percent to an annual rate of 930,000 in January and are 28.5 percent below January 2007.  The median price in the West was $300,100, down 6.7 percent from a year ago. 

These are the numbers geographically closest to Maui real estate. Interestingly, the stock markets thought these numbers would be worse and traded up on this report. For more details, contact us.