Existing home sales rise 2.9% nationally,
11.3% in N.E.

WASHINGTON – Sales of existing homes nationwide rose 2.9 percent last month to an annual rate of 5.03 million, from a January level that was the lowest in at least nine years, based on statistics released today by the National Association of Realtors.

The increase was led by the Northeast region, where sales rose 11.3 percent compared with the month before to 890,000 units per year. Sales also rose in the Midwest (+2.5 percent) and the South (+2.1 percent) but fell in the West (-1.1 percent).

Analysts had expected sales would fall 0.8 percent to a February rate of 4.80 million units per year, from the previously reported January rate of 4.89 million per year, based on a Bloomberg News survey of 63 economists. (Their estimates of last month’s sales pace ranged from 4.69 million to 4.90 million units per year.)

Compared with the same month a year ago, existing-home sales fell 23.8 percent nationwide and 26.4 percent in the Northeast. Year-over-year declines also were seen in the other three regions.

Sales of single-family homes posted month-over-month gains of 2.8 percent nationwide and 13.8 percent in the Northeast, but fell compared with a year ago by 22.9 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively. Condominium and co-op sales rose 3.7 percent nationwide last month and 4.5 percent in the Northeast, but fell compared with a year ago by 29.7 percent nationally and 26.5 percent in the Northeast regionre.

The nation’s housing inventory fell to 4.03 million, a decline of 3.0 percent from the revised 4.16 million homes on the market at the end of January, but an increase of 6.0 percent from the end of February 2007. At the current pace of sales, that represented a 9.6-month supply, down from January’s 10.2 months but up from the year-ago 6.9-month supply.

Prices continued to fall, however, with the median price of existing homes sold nationwide dropping to $195,900 in February, a decline of 2.6 percent from January and 8.2 percent from February 2007.

The year-over-year decline, the sharpest since record keeping began in 1968, was led by single-family homes. Their median price fell to $193,900 last month, a decline of 2.4 percent compared with January and 8.7 percent compared with a year ago. Meanwhile, the median price of condominiums and co-ops fell 3.9 percent compared with January and 4.9 percent year-over-year to $211,700.

In the Northeast, the median price of existing homes sold last month rose to $270,800, an increase of 6.3 percent compared with December and 3.1 percent compared with a year ago, while prices fell in the other three regions.

“It looks like this may be a temporary pause,” Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass., told Bloomberg News. “The price declines have helped, and people are still getting financing, though not on the good terms they could before. We’re still a long way from a recovery in housing.”

But Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist, projected that existing-home sales will improve in the second half of the year as lower prices and mortgage interest rates combine to make housing more affordable. Still, he said, “I would not read too deeply into a single month’s data.”

The National Association of Realtors is the nation’s largest trade association, with more than 1.3 million members in all aspects of residential and commercial real estate. Additional information is available at www.realtor.org.