Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991 TAG: 9103260042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that the February increase put sales of existing single-family homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.13 million units.
The bounce, which essentially erased a 7.3 percent plunge in January, was attributed to falling home prices and lower mortgage rates luring buyers back into the market after the end of the Persian Gulf War.
In the Roanoke Valley, the number of home sales rose 52.1 percent between January, when 117 houses traded hands, and February's 178 sales. But February was off 53.2 percent from the 380 houses sold in the same month last year, according to statistics compiled by the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors. Those figures include sales of both newly built and existing houses.
Allen Sinai, chief economist of the Boston Co., said the housing sector typically leads the country out of a recession. If February does prove to be the turning point for housing, he said, the recession could end between June and October.
The median price for homes sold in February was $94,800, down 0.8 percent from January and 0.3 percent from a year ago.
Sales were up in every part of the country, led by a huge 20 percent increase in the West, where homes were sold at an annual rate of 540,000 units.
When compared to January, sales were up 8.7 percent in the Northeast to an annual rate of 500,000 units and 8.6 percent in the Midwest, where the annual rate was 880,000 units. Homes in the South climbed 3.4 percent to a rate of 1.22 million units.
John Tuccillo, chief economist of the Realtors group, said he expected sales of existing homes this year to total 3.19 million units, helped by further declines in interest rates. He said fixed-rate mortgages should average 9.1 percent for the year.
by CNB