Region's home sales volume dips
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Residential home sales in the Pittsburgh region declined last month compared with the period a year ago, primarily due to the boost that was provided by the tax credit offered last year to first-time homebuyers.
The March data was disappointing, in part because home sales had grown in both January and February despite also being compared with months when the tax break was in full effect last year.
"We got excited when we saw two consecutive months of positive growth, knowing last year we had the benefit of a tax credit and this year we didn't," said Dan Murrer, vice president of RealSTATs, a local real estate information service based on the South Side.
"But we couldn't keep it up," he said.
While sales last month slipped 3.3 percent and the median home price dropped 3.8 percent compared with March 2010, last month's data is a significant improvement over two years ago when 350 fewer homes were sold in March 2009 and the area saw $70 million less revenue from home sales.
Mr. Murrer said the Pittsburgh area was better off today than it was two years ago, but that the region would continue to see negative monthly results through June due to the effects of last year's tax credit, which spurred sales as homebuyers hurried to take advantage of it.
Three of the five counties in the Pittsburgh metropolitan region saw more homes sold in March, although the numbers were essentially flat.
Allegheny County home sales grew modestly from 1,080 homes sold in March 2010 to 1,092 last month; Butler County sales inched up from 151 to 156; and Washington County sales climbed from 182 to 185.
Home sales fell from 160 to 121 in Beaver County and from 292 to 250 in Westmoreland County.
New construction took a harder hit than the rest of the Pittsburgh-area housing market.
Sales of new houses in the five county-region fell an average of 9 percent from 155 homes in March last year to 141 homes last month, while money spent on new homes fell 9.6 percent from $48.8 million to $44.1 million. The biggest drop came in Westmoreland County where just 11 new homes were sold last month compared with 26 in March 2010.
Sales of existing homes in the metropolitan area fell 2.7 percent from 1,710 in March 2010 to 1,663 last month.
First Published April 13, 2011 12:00 am
