South Dakota was the lone state to show a sales
increase. Existing home sales there rose 8.9 percent from the same
quarter a year ago. Sales were unchanged in North Dakota. No sales
figures were available for Idaho, Indiana and New Hampshire.
Median home prices fell in more than half of the 150 metropolitan
areas surveyed. Out of the 77 that experienced declines, 16 showed
double-digit percentage drops, the trade group said. The largest price
declines were found in Lansing, Mich., Sacramento, Calif. and Jackson,
Miss.
Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist, attributed the
declines in median prices to mortgage market problems that mushroomed
last fall, making loans more expensive for borrowers looking to take
out "jumbo" mortgages larger than $417,000, the maximum size of
mortgages that government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac can purchase and market as securities "The continuing
crunch in the jumbo loan market that began in August has
disproportionately reduced the number of transactions in higher price
ranges," Yun said in a statement.
Source : The Associated Press
