WEATHER HAS CHILLING EFFECT ON HOUSING SALES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 26, 1993                   TAG: 9303260244
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
WEATHER HAS CHILLING EFFECT ON HOUSING SALES
Winter weather nipped more housing activity in February, a trade group's figures showed Thursday.
The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously-owned, single-family homes dropped 6.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.55 million, down from 3.78 million in January and 4.04 million in December. The decline was spread across all regions.
"The fundamentals suggest the decline has to be weather-related, plus the fact that sales really soared at end of 1992 at a rate clearly not sustainable," said Robert G. Dederick of the Northern Trust Co. in Chicago. "People bought some of the homes in the fourth quarter that might have been sold later."
The Realtors' survey came on the heels of a Commerce Department report last week showing that housing starts slowed to a 2.5 percent gain in February after soaring 8.4 percent a month earlier.
Analysts attributed the slower pace to adverse weather in February and predicted activity would lag again this month because of the blizzard of '93 that swept through the South, up the Atlantic seaboard and into New England.
In the housing report, Realtors President William S. Chee acknowledged the "poor weather conditions in many sections of the nation" in February. But he said there are signs of improved consumer confidence.
"More and more people are becoming convinced that the economic recovery is here to stay," he said. "There is substantial pent-up demand to be filled, due to consumer reluctance to enter the market during the recession."
Through February, sales of existing homes were 4.6 percent above the same period of 1992.
Also expected to boost housing activity further are the lowest mortgage rates in two decades.
Fixed-rate, 30-year mortgages averaged 7.50 percent this week, down from 7.57 percent last week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., said Thursday. It said rates averaged 7.68 percent in February, down from 8 percent in January.
The Realtors said the national median price of a single-family home in February was $104,200, up 1.1 percent from January and 1 percent higher than a year earlier. The median means half of the homes cost more and half cost less.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB