Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990 TAG: 9006260058
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that resales of single-family homes totaled a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.29 million, down 1.2 percent from April's rate of 3.33 million. Sales in April dropped 2.1 percent.
Existing home sales have dropped each month since the first of the year, except during March when they were unchanged. They totaled 3.44 million in 1989.
In the Roanoke Valley, May home sales were off 13 percent from May 1989, but the total for January through May were about level with last year. There were 313 houses - both new and existing - sold in the Roanoke Valley in May, compared to 361 a year earlier. The majority of sales came in the under-$100,000 category. The median selling price was $74,950.
Mortgage rates, generally blamed for depressing home sales, generally have declined since hitting double-digit figures in January. Rates dropped from 10.67 percent at the beginning of May to 10.33 percent at month's end, according to surveys by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Rates slipped to 10.16 percent on Friday.
Mortgage rates also have crimped sales of new homes, which dropped 1.6 percent in April, the fifth straight monthly decline and the lowest level of sales since the recession year of 1982.
New-home sales for May are expected to show an increase when they are announced Friday by the Commerce Department. But "growth is certain to be held back by May's unusually rainy, chilly weather," said Samuel D. Kahan, chief economist with Fuji Securities Inc.
Realtors said the median price of an existing home in May was $94,800, down from $95,600 the previous month. The median price of a new home in April was $135,900, according to the Commerce Department.
by CNB