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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Members of the Rockford Area Realtors sold 216 homes in January, the best total for that month since 2007 (before the housing bubble burst), but their average sale price continues a shocking decline.
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Members of the Rockford Area Realtors sold 216 homes in January, the best total for that month since 2007 (before the housing bubble burst), but their average sale price continues a shocking decline.
The month’s sales total represented a 35 percent increase from January 2011 and the most in the first month of a year since 351 houses sold in January 2007.
But the three-month rolling average at the end of January fell to just $94,371.
That was the fourth straight month that the average price fell, and it’s nearly 20 percent below the average of $117,520 at the end of January 2011.
In fact, that’s the lowest average since at least before 1998. When the Realtors association began releasing a rolling average instead of a monthly average, it provided data back to the beginning of 1998 and the previous low was $96,180 in April 1998.
But the falling prices mixed with historically low mortgage rates should help prices climb. For the week ending Feb. 2, the average rate for a fixed-rate, 30-year mortgage fell to 3.87 percent. That was down from 4.81 percent the first week of February 2011, and the lowest average rate since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971.
Reach Assistant Business Editor Alex Gary at agary@rrstar.com or 815-987-1339.