US Existing Home Sales rise in February. - CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

March 24, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Existing Home Sales rise in February.

U.S. Existing Homes sales rose unexpectedly for the month of February according to the monthly report produced by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR report showed that existing-home sales including single family homes, co-ops and townhouses increased 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units. January's existing-homes sales were at the lowest sales level in 9 years with 4.89 million units. Market forecastors had predicted the sales data would decline by 0.8 percent for the month to a 4.85 million unit sales pace. The median sales price for existing homes declined in February to $195,900. This is down 8.2 percent from February 2007 which produced a median price of $213,500. Total housing inventory decreased in February by 3.0 percent to a total of 4.03 million homes.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun commented in the report about the increased sales figures this month: “We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” he said. “Buyers taking advantage of higher loan limits for both FHA and conventional mortgages will unleash some pent-up demand. As inventories are drawn down, prices in many markets should go positive later this year.”

Data for U.S. New Home Sales in February will be released this week on Wednesday at 14:00 Gmt(10 am Est). Market forecasts are expecting a 1.7 percent fall from January's annual rate of 588K to an annual rate of 579K new homes sold. January's new home sales dropped 2.8 percent from December.

Tags: us existing home sales, lawrence yun, nar, us real estate,

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