A home sales report released today by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) suggests the residential market continues to suffer the ill effects of consumer gloom and economic uncertainty.
Existing-home sales dipped by 3 percent in September from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.91 million, according to the Realtors group. Economists generally describe a healthy housing market as one that is producing 6 million sales.
Regionally, home sales fell across most of the country. The only uptick came in the Northeast, which rose 2.6 percent. Sales were down 8.8 percent in the West, 2.6 percent in the South, and .9 percent in the Midwest. All this puts home sales on a pace to equal 2010’s miserable figures, which were the worst in 13 years.
Despite the years-long malaise, there are many installing security contractors that have continued to prosper by making adjustments to their business strategies and maintaining successful ones. For insights into where new market expansion does exist, don’t miss SSI‘s upcoming annual residential market report in the November issue.
Penned by Tricia Parks, CEO and founder of Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates, the article will detail opportunities for security contractors to expand their traditional offerings. For instance, growing consumer awareness and expectations are driving new sales in IP-based energy and automation services, as well as services that help consumers stay connected to their homes. Not only does bundling these services with home monitoring increase potential revenue on a monthly basis, it expands the universe of interested householders immediately by about 10 percent, according to Parks.
