January existing-home sales down, but still historically high
Sales of existing single-family homes were down in January from near-record highs but the pace of transactions remains exceptionally strong on a historical basis, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
The NAR reported that existing-home sales declined 5.2 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.04 million units from a downwardly revised level of 6.37 million in December, which was the third-highest pace on record. Last month's sales activity was 2.0 percent above the 5.92 million-unit pace of January 2003. The all-time record of 6.68 million sales was set in September 2003.