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National Homes Sales Rise 5.1% in February

  • March 23rd 2009

by Mark Wellborn

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The National Association of Realtors released some good news today: Existing home sales in the U.S. rose 5.1 percent to 4.72 million units in February, an increase of 230,000 units over January (4.49 million units).

In more good news, NAR’s Lawrence Yun said that first-time buyers accounted for almost half of all home sales in February. From the NAR press release:

“Because entry level buyers are shopping for bargains, distressed sales accounted for 40 to 45 percent of transactions in February,” he said. “Our analysis shows that distressed homes typically are selling for 20 percent less than the normal market price, and this naturally is drawing down the overall median price.”

While all that news is certainly great to hear, the national February sales were still 4.6 percent below their February 2008 level. In the South region (which includes DC), home sales rose 6.1 percent in February, however the median price was down 10 percent from a year ago to $146,700.

For the full NAR press release, click here.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/national_homes_sales_rise_5.1_in_february/701.

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