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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 27, 1993                   TAG: 9304270079
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BLIZZARD PUT HOME SALES ON ICE

Sales of previously owned homes slipped 2.9 percent in March as severe weather froze housing activity in much of the nation, a real estate trade group reported Monday.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing single-family homes totaled 3.36 million at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, down from 3.46 million in February and 3.78 million in January. Sales fell in every region except the Midwest.

"Sellers and buyers lost a week in March," said Realtors' President William S. Chee. It was the third straight month that weather was blamed for skidding sales.

The 2.9 percent slide was bigger than the 1 percent decline many analysts had expected. And the revised 8.5 percent drop in February was even steeper than the estimate of 6.1 percent. Sales had fallen 6.4 percent in January after rising 4.7 percent a month earlier.

But Chee and other analysts said housing fundamentals, including low mortgage rates, are favorable and the winter weather merely postponed sales activity.

The Realtors predict existing-home sales will reach 3.66 million units this year, compared to 3.52 million in 1992 and 3.22 million in 1991, when the housing recession ended.

The Realtors also said the median price of a home in the United States was $106,000, 2.3 percent higher than in February and 1.6 percent above that of March 1992. The median means half the homes cost more and half cost less.

The Midwest posted the only increase in sales, up 3.4 percent to a 920,000 rate. The median price was $85,200. But in the Northeast, which bore the brunt of the blizzard, sales plunged 9.1 percent, to a to a 500,000 rate. The median price there was $140,800.

Sales fell 3.1 percent, to a 1.25 million rate, in the South, where the storm originated. The median price was $92,200.

In the Roanoke Valley, home sales rose 23 percent in March, but they still were 6 percent lower than in March 1992. The Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors said 370 houses - both new and existing - were sold in March and the median price was $83,500.

by CNB