Home Sales Rise in Hard-Hit Areas

Wall Street Journal (05/27/08) P. A3; Hagerty, James R.
Home sales are on the rise in several of the areas--including Fort Myers, Fla.; Las Vegas; Sacramento, Calif.; and inner-city Detroit--hit hardest by foreclosures and falling prices. Although Americans generally remain wary of further declines in residential prices, the data from these areas show that some buyers are finding the bargains too enticing to pass up. Thomas Lawler, a Virginia-based housing economist, says home sellers "have moved into the acceptance mode" and are pricing properties more realistically. DataQuick Information Systems calculates that sales of single-family homes in California's Sacramento County totaled 1,669 last month, a 41-percent jump from a year earlier as the median sales price fell 34 percent to $226,250. Meanwhile, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reports that properties being sold by lenders account for more than 50 percent of recent sales.