By Jann Swanson
Posted To: MND NewsWire
Existing home sales in January were disappointing to start the New Year, declining to their lowest rate in nine months. The sales, which include completed sales of single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and co-ops, were down 4.9 percent from December’s 5.7 million rate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million. The rate of sales was the slowest since May 2014 when the annual pace was 4.90 million but sales were higher than a year earlier, up 3.2 percent. It was the fourth straight month that existing home sales bettered the score from the previous year. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, called the launch of the New Year somewhat disappointing and noted that January closings were down throughout the country. “January housing data can be volatile because of seasonal influences…(read more)