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Existing home sales rose 6.8 percent in March

A view of a home for sale in Los Angeles February 24, 2010. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

A view of a home for sale in Los Angeles February 24, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

WASHINGTON | Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:26pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. existing home sales climbed in March as Americans rushed to take advantage of a tax credit for home buyers, but activity remained severely depressed from levels preceding the country's sharpest housing downturn in modern history.

Sales rose 6.8 percent to an annual rate of 5.35 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday. Forecasters in a Reuters poll had been looking for a more subdued 4.6 percent increase.

The nationwide median home price was only slightly higher than a year earlier at $170,700. Many economists see activity in housing as key to any recovery, particularly given the sector's crucial role in driving the country into its worst recession in 70 years.

The supply of available homes stood at 3.58 million units, or 8.0 months.

(Reporting by Melissa Bland, Pedro da Costa and Nancy Waitz; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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Comments (3)
RandyB wrote:
I think it’s time for the government to get out of the housing market and let the market take its course. As tax payers, we are all supporting this mess and it is dragging on and on. While some people benefit from subsidies, the rest of us pay the bill.

Apr 22, 2010 11:01am EDT  --  Report as abuse
NoraCharles wrote:
Killing jobs and home equity are the pillars of the republican assault on the middle class. Don’t blame the left for making health care too expensive to hire older employees with statistically greater health costs.

If you’re over fifty, your job and income have been hijacked by the GOP. The move to rein in health costs would have supported hiring and retaining an older workforce and the republicans said, “NO.” Was it to defeat Obama or to strip an elderly workforce of any bargaining power?

Apr 22, 2010 11:40am EDT  --  Report as abuse
Storyburncom_is wrote:
7.9 million people aren’t paying their mortgage these days. Housing is about to get a lot worse

Apr 22, 2010 1:41pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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