Following three months of increases, existing-home sales fell 9.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million in February from an upwardly revised 5.40 million in January, according to the National Association of Realtors. That?s 2.8% below the 5.02 million pace in February 2010.
?Housing affordability conditions have been at record levels and the economy has been improving, but home sales are being constrained by the twin problems of unnecessarily tight credit, and a measurable level of contract cancellations from some appraisals not supporting prices negotiated between buyers and sellers,? said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. ?This tug and pull is causing a gradual but uneven recovery.�Existing-home sales remain 26.4% above the cyclical low last July.?
Total housing inventory at the end of February rose 3.5% to 3.49 million existing homes available for sale; this represents an 8.6-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 7.5-month supply in January.�
Single-family home sales dropped 9.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.25 million in February from 4.70 million in January, and are 2.7% below the 4.37 million pace in February 2010.
Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast fell 7.2% to an annual pace of 770,000 in February, and are 8.3% below February 2010. Existing-home sales in the Midwest dropped 12.2% to 1.01 million, and are 9.0% lower than a year ago. In the South, existing-home sales fell 10.2% to an annual pace of 1.84 million, and are unchanged from February 2010. In the West existing-home sales declined 8.0% to an annual level of 1.26 million, and are 2.4% below a year ago.�
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