Home sales rate dips

By Associated Press

Last update: May 15, 2007 - 10:12 AM

WASHINGTON Existing home sales rose at an annual rate of 6.4 million units last quarter, down 6.6 percent from the pace of a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said today.

In the trade group's quarterly survey of housing market conditions, the national median existing single-family home price was $212,300, down 1.8 percent from a year ago when the median price was $216,100.

"It appears the worst of the price correction is behind us," said Pat V. Combs, NAR's president and vice president of Coldwell Banker-AJS-Schmidt in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Existing home sales were 2.4 percent higher at an annual rate than they were in the last quarter of 2006.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia showed an increase in the rate of home sales last quarter compared to only six states showing gains a quarter earlier.

The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more and half the homes sold for less.

At least part of the decline in the median prices of homes in the United States is because sales have shifted away from more expensive homes, the NAR said.

Regionally, existing home sales took the biggest hit in the West, where the sales pace fell 11.9 percent to an annual rate of 1.3 million units and the median home price was 1.8 percent below a year ago at $336,200.

Existing home sales in the South fell 7.3 percent to an annual rate of 2.5 million units and the median home price was $177,800, just 0.6 percent below a year ago.

In the Midwest, existing home sales fell 6.1 percent to a pace of 1.5 million units. The median single-family home price was $154,600, down 2.8 percent from a year earlier.

The Northeast fared the best with sales rising at a 1.2 percent annual rate to 1.1 million units last quarter with a median price of $268,900, down 2.5 percent from a year ago.

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