Seasonal Effects in Housing

Econbrowser has some bad news about the current housing market:

In a typical year, most new home sales occur between March and August. In each of those months we usually might expect 35% more homes to be sold than at the seasonal low in December. This August, home sales were actually less than in December, the first time that's happened in the 44 years these numbers are available.

For comparison, using MLS data on home sales, the 7 Rivers Region saw 102 listings sold in December of 2006, while August of 2007 saw 155 listings sold. That is a 52% increase. Although August 2007 is 11% below August 2006, at least its not below December of 2006!