New national numbers were released by the National Association of Realtors® yesterday.  Overall, sales (sales closed in May) were up, but not as much as had been expected.  Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist noted that many sales written in earlier months failed to close because of poor appraisals.  Lending institutions often have been sending in appraisers who were unfamiliar with areas, even entire towns, and properties failed to appraise and consequently failed to close. 

This has always been a problem, especially when appraisers ignore information having do to with distressed properties.  A property sold in foreclosure is not a valid comparative sale, since it is not between a "willing buyer and willing seller."  Using such properties drives all values down.  As values decline, the potential is for additional properties to fall into foreclosure - a downward spiral, not unlike Detroit over the past ten years.

In the Northeast region sales were up 3.9% over April, but still down 10.1% over a year ago, and prices were down 12.5% over a year ago.  Somerset County New Jersey sales were off 17% over a year ago, but up 12.6% over April.  Remember, all real estate markets are local, so make your real estate buying and selling decisions based on local, not the mythical national numbers.