Sales of existing homes post small increase but prices post record decline

[Robbien]

WASHINGTON -- Sales of existing homes posted a tiny increase in October but the median home price fell by a record amount. Analysts forecast more price declines in coming months as the once-booming housing market undergoes a painful correction.

The National Association of Realtors said today that existing home sales edged up 0.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.24 million last month. It was the first increase after seven consecutive monthly declines.

However, the median price for a home sold dropped to $221,000 in October, a decline of 3.5 percent from a year ago. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline on record.

It marked the third straight month that median prices have fallen compared with the same period a year ago, the longest stretch of such declines on record. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

. . .

For October, sales were down 2.9 percent in the Northeast and 1.2 percent in the South. However, they rose by 6.4 percent in the West and were unchanged in the Midwest.

The inventory of unsold homes rose by 1.9 percent in October to 3.85 million units, the second highest total on record. It would take 7.4 months to exhaust the backlog of unsold homes at the October sales pace.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-112806homesales,0,460987.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[jdadd]

1. Probably like people I know

They no longer can keep the mortgage payments up and have to bail out.