Slight Improvement In Housing Sales: Was June The Cruelest Month?

Some of Alan Ball's friends tell him he's

the most negative person they know

. So he laughed when SFR told him he was the most optimistic person we'd spoken to all day.

Ball, who manages Southwest Title & Escrow, keeps a close eye on Santa Fe housing sales and writes a monthly newsletter on the topic. It's been gloomy reading for some time. But July's home sales figures had him

sounding almost cheery

. Last month, he writes, brought "

the first increase, same period year to year, since June 2006!

We were due for some positive news..."

No kidding. But it was a slight—again,

slight

—improvement.

Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce President Simon Brackley tells SFR that Ball's news is somewhat encouraging, but "it's going to take a while until the construction industry recovers.

Until we get some building going on, the carpenters and roofers and plasterers are going to be hurting

."

Ball writes:

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