Housing Market Sales Rise

Existing home sales rose in April for the first time in 2014, an encouraging sign amid growing worries about the housing recovery\’s sagging momentum in recent months.

Sales crept up 1.3% from March to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.65 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

But the pace is still almost 7% below April 2013 and the four-month average for this year trails last year\’s by about the same percentage. The sales rate was consistently over 5 million last May through October.

Last month\’s sales of single-family homes were about 8% behind their April 2013 pace, while sales of condominiums, town homes and co-ops were unchanged.

The National Association of Realtors predicts existing home sales for the year are likely to run below last year\’s 5.1 million due to the sluggish first quarter.

On the positive side, the supply of homes in April increased from March while price gains eased — two trends that could help pull more buyers into the market and boost sales further if they continue.

Based on April\’s sales rate, the number of homes on the market rose almost 17% to a 5.9-month supply. That\’s up from 5.1 months in March and close to the six-month level that is considered balanced between buyers and sellers.

The median price for all existing homes in April was $201,700, up 5.2% from a year earlier. In the first quarter, the median was 8.6% higher than in the first three months of 2013.

“Current price data suggests a trend of slower growth, which bodes well for preserving favorable affordability conditions in much of the country,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.

The West and the South both showed sales gains over March while the Northeast region was unchanged and the Midwest had a modest decline, the association said.

The housing market\’s recovery quickened last year, but has eased in 2014 in the face of last year\’s sharp price increases, higher mortgage rates than last spring and a tight supply of lower-priced homes for sale.

The Federal Reserve has cited the slow pace of the housing recovery as a risk for the broader economy\’s continued improvement. In a USA TODAY survey of leading economists this month, 54% said they were more pessimistic about housing\’s recovery than they were in December.

Economist Joel Naroff, of Naroff Economic Advisors, says April\’s sales report should be read cautiously. Because the National Association of Realtors counts completed transactions, and given the delays buyers may face in getting mortgages, the figures for April likely reflect activity two months earlier or more, he says.

“We need to wait until June before we have a really good idea about the condition of the existing home market,” Naroff says.

More data on the April housing market is due Friday when the Commerce Department releases its report on new home sales. Those figures are based on contracts signed or deposits made in a given month.

Courtesy of www.USAtoday.com