With customers taking advantage of the tax credit that expires at the end of April, existing home sales jumped 6.8% in March, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million units in March from 5.01 million in February, This is 16.1% above the 4.61 million-unit level in March 2009.

"Sales have been above year-ago levels for nine straight months, and inventory has trended down from year-ago levels for 20 months running," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. "The home buyer tax credit has been a resounding success as these underlying trends point to a broad stabilization in home prices. This is preserving perhaps $1 trillion in largely middle class housing wealth that may have been wiped out without the housing stimulus measure."

Total housing inventory at the end of March rose 1.5% to 3.58 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.0-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 8.5-month supply in February. Raw unsold inventory is 1.8% below a year ago, and is 21.7 percent below the record of 4.58 million in July 2008. Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast increased 6.0%, 7.2% in the Midwest, 7.1% in the South, and 6.6% in the West.

Read more from the NAR press release and at CNNMoney.com.

Posted in Education And Training, MBI Headlines

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