Sales of previously occupied US homes rose in February as easing mortgage rates and more properties on the market encouraged home shoppers. Existing home sales rose 4.2% last month from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales fell 1.2% compared with February last year, ending a string of five straight annual increases. The latest home sales topped the 3.92 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. On an unadjusted basis, sales fell 5.2% in February last year,...

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose in February as easing mortgage rates and more properties on the market encouraged home shoppers. Existing home sales rose 4.2% last month from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales fell 1.2% compared with February last year, ending a string of five straight annual increases. The latest home sales topped the 3.92 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. On an unadjusted basis, sales fell 5.2% in February last year,...

The median price of an existing home in February was $398,400, according to the National Association of Realtors, the highest-ever price for that month. Sales of existing homes rose in February, as some buyers — particularly those with higher incomes — are keeping the upper end of the market alive and well. Home sales broadly rose 4.2% in February to a 4.26 million pace. That’s the number of homes that would be sold over an entire year if sales took place at the same rate in every month as they...

Following January's big tumble in existing home sales (blamed in large part on winter storms... which apparently surprised analysts as happening in the winter and impacting sales), expectations - despite suddenly declining mortgage rates - were for February to see further weakness in sales (-3.2% MoM). As we suspected (in our sarcastic intro), sales surprised bigly to the upside in February, rising 4.2% MoM (from a revised 4.7% MoM decline in January). That is the biggest MoM jump since Feb 2024... However, despite the rebound, sales remain down 1.2% YoY....