Sales up... Prices down...

CNBC reports today that home sales were up 2.9% for the month of February (compared to last month), breaking a six month streak of falling sales; while home prices had a record fall.  The inventory of unsold homes fell by 3% to 4.03 million; which would require 9.6 months to deplete, assuming no additional homes were placed on the market.

My Take

Since it generally takes 30 days to close, these numbers actually represent sales activity from January not February itself.  It's not surprising that during that period the numbers are higher because interest rates were lower at the time.  I believe that the numbers for February and March will be considerably lower.

Read the full CNBC article for yourself here.