Existing-Home Sales Rise as Prices Plummet

Washington Post (03/25/08) P. D1; Lengel, Allan
The National Association of Realtors reports that sales of previously owned homes rose an unexpected 2.9 percent in February as buyers took advantage of the large supply of properties on the market that were available at low prices. The median sales price of existing homes last month was $195,900--down 8.2 percent from $213,500 a year earlier--and also represented the biggest decline since 1999, when NAR started tracking the data. Sales in February, still off 23.8 percent from a year ago, came in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.03 million units, compared with 4.89 million in January. NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun sees the surprising increase as a sign that the market is stabilizing, adding: "The only thing that may hold the housing market back is the consumer-confidence issue."