National Association of Realtors Revising 2007-2010 data downward

In a move that is shocking only to those that haven't been paying attention, NAR just revised downward their sales estimates for basically the duration of the housing bubble's burst.  Details can be found in this Wall Street Journal Blog.

The good news is that the market really isn't any worse than we already thought it was, just the reported numbers.  We already knew it's been a tough four years.  It looks like they're revising everything downward, which means the month-to-month and year-to-year percentages are going to remain the same.  So ultimately all they're saying is "You know when we told you this was the worst housing market since we started keeping track of this stuff?  Well, it's even worse than we thought."  

So what's the silver lining?  You can't start coming back until you've hit rock bottom.  We just got 15% closer without the market ACTUALLY getting worse than what we're already experiencing.  Things have been picking up lately, and sales have been on the upswing in this last quarter of 2011.  As a seller you need to understand what it might take to move your property in a down market.  As a buyer, line up your financing and go shopping - it's still "Black Friday" in the housing market!