Home Sales Rose, Prices Fell in February

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: NYT/AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February although the the median home price tumbled by the largest amount on record, a real estate trade group reported Monday.

The National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units. It was the biggest increase in a year and caught economists by surprise. They had been expecting a small decline.

Part of the sales improvement may have reflected more aggressive price cutting. The median home price fell to $195,900. That was the largest year-over-year drop on records that go back to 1999.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the one-month rise in sales. Many economists are predicting that the steep slump in housing will not bottom-out until later this year after prices fall further, enticing hesistant buyers back into the market.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Economy.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. "enticing hesistant buyers back into the market"

assuming, of course, they can get financing. that's a HUGE assumption at this point.....

[fasttense]

2. When banks sell off foreclosed homes

to their own subsidiary for a dollar it makes it look like people are buying more homes. Good luck with that fake number, next month it will adjusted down.

[Delphinus]

7. Ooh, thanks for that

IMPORTANT piece of information!

Man, it seems these books are cooked every which way they can think of.

[pattmarty]

3. Speculators? SOME people have a awful lot of money to invest.

[old guy]

4. Color me skeptical.

[Javaman]

5. So the Europeans are buying up all the old properties at firesale prices...

wooo...hooo...

Wake me up when NEW home sales start going up.

this is nothing but bullshit with shoe polish on it.

[Xenotime]

6. Let them have it. Their currency isn't the one in the shitter..

so they are obviously doing somethign right.

[izquierdista]

8. They are doing a lot of things right

All over Europe construction is going on, both public and private, building up the infrastructure of the countries. In the U.S. though, there is the issue of class. Those that have are building, or they may not, while they wait for the sub-prime mess to bust prices down a few notches so they can pick up some bargain basement deals. In the meanwhile, the I-35 bridge stays in the river, the Gulf Coast grows another crop of weeds, Ground Zero in New York City remains vacant, and the Rust Belt gets rustier.