Glimmer of Hope in Realtors’ Report on Rising Home Sales, Prices

Home sales rose in 39 states last quarter and median prices rose 4 percent, offering hope for the residential market's immediate future, according to an industry report released Wednesday. But the numbers still represented double-digit losses over the past year. The "National Association of Realtors' report":http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/08/2nd_Helped?LID=RONav0021/ shows that median home prices across the U.S. actually rose to $174,100 from $167,300, bolstered by the traditional summer sales season and by house hunters looking for bottom-of-the-barrel deals. The association's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, was optimistic about the statistics. "With low interest rates, lower home prices and a first-time buyer tax credit, we've been seeing healthy increases in home sales, which are a hopeful sign for the economy," he said. But the numbers weren't all encouraging. That median price represented a 15.6 percent drop in values since the same time in 2008. And individual markets continued to register massive pricing drops: 129 of 155 metropolitan areas saw lower median prices in the second quarter, led by Ft. Myers, Florida (53 percent) and Phoenix, Las Vegas and Riverside, California (all fell more than 35 percent). "I don't think we're at a bottom yet in home prices," Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis, told Bloomberg Wednesday. "There's also a pretty big shadow supply of houses. People are kind of waiting for the bottom, but there's a pent-up supply out there."