Home sales pace off in 33 states: realtors

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The homes sales pace slid in 33 states in the first three months of 2007 while the metro regions with a price increase outnumbered those with a decline in a sign of broad stabilization in the housing market, a leading real estate trade group said on Tuesday.

While the data from the National Association of Realtors was mixed, it was seen as an overall positive for the battered housing sector.

"Conditions changed fairly rapidly during the boom, but we need more patience now to see a slow, gradual recovery, which should start in the second half of this year," said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.

The Dow Jones home-building index, which had been trading in negative territory, turned slightly positive, up 0.2 percent after the report's release.

The states that benefited most from the recent housing boom were the worst hit by a sales decline, according to the quarterly survey from the National Association of Realtors.

Nevada, Florida, Arizona and California were among the top six states to see a sales pace decline in the first three months of the year compared to that period in 2006. Hawaii and Louisiana were also among those six.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia showed an increase in the sales pace from a year ago while one state was unchanged, the NAR report said.