Existing Home Sales Rebound 3% in November : Real Estate: Analysts cite lower prices and loan rates, which have created a buyer’s market, as instrumental in halting a two-month slide.

Buoyed by lower mortgage rates and cheaper prices, the nation’s housing markets showed renewed life in November as sales of existing single-family homes rose nearly 3%, indicating that the worst may be over for the U.S. residential real estate slump, experts said Wednesday.

“The downward slide appears to be coming to an end,” said Richard Peach, an economist for the Mortgage Bankers Assn. in Washington.

After two months of steep declines, the sales pace of existing homes rose 2.95% in November compared to October, according to the latest monthly report from the National Assn. of Realtors, an industry trade group.

The heightened sales pace comes as rates on fixed-rate mortgages have fallen well below 10%--a percentage point below their level in August--while the nationwide median price of an existing home has fallen to $91,300, 7% less than in July.

“Buyers couldn’t ask for better terms--lower rates and lower prices,” said Harley E. Rouda, president of the realtors group. “Home-buying conditions are the best we have seen in a decade.”

Economists caution, however, that the nation’s housing market is still several months away from a true recovery, largely because consumer confidence remains fragile because of uncertainties about the economy and the prospects of war in the Middle East. A recovery won’t begin until next spring at the earliest, experts say.

“The market is moving along the bottom now,” said David Berson, chief economist for the Federal National Mortgage Assn., also known as Fannie Mae. “We don’t expect the market to go down much more, but a 3% rise is not statistically significant.”

The sales rate for existing single-family homes nationwide rose to 3.14 million in November, up from 3.05 million units in October. Those are seasonally adjusted numbers that indicate the number of homes that would be sold annually if the pace in October and November were to continue all year long.

By region, the South and West showed sales increases in November, while the pace was unchanged in the Midwest and down slightly in the Northeast. Home sales in the West rose to 500,000 units from 490,000 in October, a rise of 2%.

The National Assn. of Realtors predicts that 3.3 million existing single-family homes will be sold in 1990, off nearly 6% from 1989, while the national median price is expected to be $95,400, up 2.6% from last year.

The sales pace in California, which accounts for most of the sales in the West, has quickened after running at its lowest levels in several years.

Sales of existing single-family homes in California rose in November for the second-consecutive month, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual level of 402,000, according to figures released last week by the California Assn. of Realtors. It was the first back-to-back monthly sales increase since February, the state group said.

At the same time, the median price of a house sold in California rose to $192,280 in November, a rise of more than 2% from October.

“November’s statewide median home price increase is a promising signal that the housing market may have stabilized,” a California Assn. of Realtors official said last week.

Still, few expect the markets--national or local--to improve much until the uncertainty in the Middle East is settled. The United Nations has set Jan. 15 as the deadline for Iraqi troops to leave Kuwait, although a U.S.-led offensive against Iraq--if one is necessary--is not expected to begin until after Feb. 1.

“Most people who are making major financial decisions--and buying a house certainly qualifies as that--are going to wait to see what happens in the Middle East,” Berson said.

Existing Home Sales Seasonally adjusted, millions of units November, 1990: 3.14 millions unitsSource: National Assn. of Realtors