So, are house sales up or down?

SPAIN/CADIZ (Agencies/Photo: illustration only) One of many items throughout the media in Spain says that house sales increased by 19.6% in January compared to the previous month with 45,013 transactions: 'Yesterday the National Institute of Statistics (INE) published the figures for transactions in January. Many of the transactions took place in 2010 but were not completed until January 2011 so therefore missed the deadline for the scrapping of the tax rebate for the purchase of property. The new rules came into effect in January 2011. The increase was more notable in used housing where sales rose by 24.3% (23,168 transactions) while sales for new housing increased by 14.9 % (21,845 transactions).' Another article says that house sales are down by 22% in the Province of Cadiz: 'The upward swing in the real estate market that happened towards the end of 2010 is now reduced to a mere hiccup in the market's present deppression ... caused by tax benefits that prescribed on December 31. The present reality, however, shows a decrease in sales of 22.1%, with only 868 properties sold in the first quarter of this year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE)." So which is it to be? Your guess is a good as ours.