Housing Sales

Prices of existing homes fell in 80% of the nation's metropolitan markets in the third quarter as distressed sales -- foreclosures and short sales -- accounted for nearly a third of all deals, a national group said Tuesday. The U.S. median sale price for an existing single-family home was $177,900, an 11.2% drop from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Assn. of Realtors in Washington. Distressed sales continued to weigh on prices despite a popular tax credit fueling the volume of deals.

Then: In October 2007, Sausser was at a breaking point. His expenses exceeded his income by about $3,000 a month. The payments on $35,000 in credit card debt were hard to sustain. He was unsure whether he should stay in his Van Nuys home or pursue his dream of moving with his partner to Palm Springs. An AIDS survivor, Sausser, 47, never expected that he'd live to see retirement. He has struggled with high medical bills for almost 20 years. The planner told Sausser that he needed to stop increasing his debt.

This chart, which continues on the next page, lists median prices in thousands of dollars for resales of single-family houses and condos. Percentage changes are a year-over-year comparison for the reporting month. The price per square foot in the far-right column includes only single-family home sales and does not include attached garages. Prices, provided by MDA DataQuick in La Jolla, Calif., are drawn from official records and are determined on the basis of the documentary transfer tax, when paid in full.

Mortgage interest rates are at their lowest levels in five weeks, and not surprisingly, more people are seeking home loans, two surveys from big industry players show. But in an ominous sign for the housing market, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. said in a report Thursday that the increase was driven by people refinancing homes, not buying them. A seasonally adjusted index of home purchase applications was at its lowest level since 2000, the mortgage group said. The closely watched Freddie Mac report on rates came out Thursday, showing 30-year fixed home loans at an average of 4.91% this week for borrowers paying 0.7% in upfront points and fees to lenders.

Nationwide sales of previously owned houses and condominiums fell 20% in November from the same month a year ago, according to data released Monday. But the month's sales were up slightly over October. The National Assn. of Realtors saw the October-to-November rise as an indication that the housing market might be approaching a bottom. Lawrence Yun, the organization's chief economist, called the modest bump up in sales "a sign that the housing market is stabilizing."

Panden Rota, a Nepalese producer of fine rugs, is about to become a Manhattanite, the owner of a sumptuous apartment in the luxurious downtown neighborhood of Battery Park City. His primary residence will remain Katmandu, but his new home will enable him to spend more time at U.S. showrooms that display his rugs and with a brother and sister in New York. "I looked at many places and I decided that a Manhattan apartment will always hold its value," he said.

U.S. existing-home sales will reach a bottom in 2008 as buyers find it tougher to get mortgages, according to a forecast by the Mortgage Bankers Assn., the industry's largest trade group. Sales of previously owned homes probably will drop to an 11-year low of 4.94 million from 5.68 million last year and then increase to 5.12 million in 2009, the Washington-based group said Monday. New-home sales are likely to tumble 15% this year to 666,000 before rising 6.6% in 2009.

Soaring prices. Precious few homes. Bidding wars. Sound like Southern California a few years back? Welcome to an unexpected bright spot in global housing: Baghdad. Attracted by news of decreased violence, thousands of displaced Iraqis returning to Baghdad's safer neighborhoods are fueling a bit of a real estate frenzy. Last year, home prices plummeted and rents dropped as Iraqis left town in search of more stability.

Sales of new single-family homes plummeted a record 26% last year and builders slashed prices by the most since 1970 in a struggle to cope with the housing bust, a U.S. government report showed Monday. The Commerce Department report offered little hope for a turnaround any time soon as a record one-month drop in the median home price for December failed to stoke demand and the number of months needed to clear the inventory of unsold homes rose. Sales in December fell 4.

The U.S. housing market has still not reached bottom, the number of workers drawing jobless benefits has hit a 2 1/4 -year high and consumers are tightening their purse strings, reports showed Thursday, suggesting that the economy may have screeched to a halt. Pending sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5% in December and were off a sharp 24% from a year earlier, the National Assn. of Realtors said.