Home Sales Fall, But Signs of Stability Emerge

Wall Street Journal (04/23/08) P. A3; Evans, Kelly; Reddy, Sudeep
The National Association of Realtors reports a 2-percent decline in existing-home sales to an annual rate of 4.93 million in March from the prior month and a 19.3-percent drop from 6.11 million a year ago. Regionally, resales edged up 2.2 percent in both the West and Northeast but slipped 6.5 percent in the Midwest and 3.5 percent in the South. Although weak sales caused a jump in resale inventory to a 9.9-month supply, experts say two home-price reports reveal some good news for the housing market. NAR reports an increase in the national median home price to $200,700 in March from $195,600 in February, while the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says home prices edged up 0.6 percent in February from the previous month. RBS Greenwich Capital chief economist Stephen Stanley notes, "While it remains too early to definitively call a bottom, we continue to argue that home sales will stabilize [albeit at very low levels] by midyear."