STOCKS RALLY ON RISE OF HOME SALES

Big jump in the stock market today. Are we hitting a bottom in home sales? Only time will tell. My weekly sales tracking is showing a drop off last week. However, with the Easter holiday, one would expect sales to be off last week. I will report the final numbers later today. Below is the report about the rise in existing home sales for your review:

Home Sales Rose, Prices Fell in February
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER,
AP
Posted: 2008-03-24 10:45:18
WASHINGTON (AP) - After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February which may have reflected more aggressive price cutting by sellers in some parts of the country, a real estate trade group reported. The National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units. It was the biggest increase in a year and caught economists by surprise. They had been expecting a small decline. The trade group reported that the median existing sales price in February fell to $195,900. That was the largest year-over-year drop on records that go back to 1999. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that prices in some formerly hot markets in California and Florida were seeing significant price declines now as sellers try to attract buyers. Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the one-month rise in sales. Many economists are predicting that the steep slump in housing will not bottom-out until later this year after prices fall further and allow huge levels of unsold inventories to be reduced. http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/home-sales-rose-prices-fell-in-february/n20080324104509990020