Existing-home sales decrease in 46 states

Sales of existing homes fell in 46 states during the July-September quarter in a worsening of the housing market’s slump, a real estate trade group reported Wednesday.

The third-quarter figures from the National Assn. of Realtors underscore the severity of the housing market’s slump, which has economists increasingly pessimistic about the economic outlook.

Vermont and North Dakota were the only two states to show sales increases. Existing-home sales in Vermont rose 0.8% from the same quarter a year earlier, and sales in North Dakota rose 2.9%. No sales figures were available for Idaho and New Hampshire.

The Realtors, though, saw a silver lining in the data, noting that home prices rose in 93 of the 150 metropolitan areas surveyed.

Yet big price drops plagued formerly booming parts of the country. Median prices fell by more than 10% in parts of Florida and California compared with the third quarter of last year.

Trade-group executives emphasize that the real estate market is not a national one, and conditions vary -- sometimes dramatically -- from market to market.

“Some metro areas are hot while others are experiencing localized problems,” said Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist. “Home prices in the vast midsection of America, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, are affordable and perhaps even undervalued.”

Still, numerous experts forecast a continued decline in median prices nationwide as conditions deteriorate in the housing and mortgage industries.

Nationwide, existing homes sold at an annual rate of 5.42 million units in the third quarter, down 13.7% from the sales pace of the third quarter in 2006, the Realtors group said.

The states suffering the biggest drop in sales in the third quarter were Nevada, down 35%, and Florida, down 32%. Other states with big declines were Arizona, down 30.9%, and California, down 27.8%.

Mortgage lenders, would-be home buyers and Wall Street investors have been grappling all year with the effect of rising defaults, the result of lax lending standards prevalent during this decade’s housing boom.

As defaults have risen, lenders have grown more cautious, which has resulted in fewer buyers qualifying to purchase homes for sale.