Update: Signs of a bottom? National home sales show signs of life

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Update: Home sales showed unexpected signs of life nationally in February, prompting talk that the housing market may be nearing a turnaround.

The 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.’

More, from the AP: ‘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.’

An important local reminder: We’ve already seen the results for February sales in Los Angles, and there was no hint of a rebound in the February statistics from DataQuick: February sales in Los Angeles County were 45% below year-ago levels, and median sales prices were down 12.9%. So if you see some glimmer of hope in today’s national numbers, remember, the L.A. numbers for February were awful.

More on today’s numbers, from Reuters: ‘The pace of existing home sales in the United States rose in February to a 5.03 million-unit annual rate. ... February broke a six-month streak of decreasing home sales.’

On prices: ‘Prices took a record fall ... an 8.2% decline in median home prices from a year ago. That drop to $195,900 was the sharpest since the trade group began keeping records in 1968.’

The pace of annual sales rose from 4.89 million in January to 5.03 million in February, which is 24% below last February’s pace of 6.60 million sales.

The National Association of Realtors’ news release is here, including analysis from association economist Lawrence Yun: ‘We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” he said. “Buyers taking advantage of higher loan limits for both [Federal Housing Administration] and conventional mortgages will unleash some pent-up demand. As inventories are drawn down, prices in many markets should go positive later this year.”

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles.@latimes.com