The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Wednesday that existing home sales nationwide rose 2.7 percent during January, but prices fell to their lowest level in almost nine years. A similar situation happened in the Twin Cities metro area during January, according to data I reported two weeks ago, which showed an increase in pending sales, but a steep decline in sale prices driven by an increase in foreclosure sales.

At the same time a Wall Street Journal report yesterday said that NAR might have over-reported the number of home sales in recent years, a revelation that suggests that the housing downturn has been worse than previously thought. The group is looking into the possiblity that consolidations among the Realtor groups that report the data might have contributed to inaccuracies in its sales numbers going back to 2007. CoreLogic, which also tracks national sales figures, but uses data from local courthouses, says that the numbers could be inflated by as much as 20 percent.