Marking the third consecutive month of falling sales, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports sales of previously-owned homes edged down 1.2 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.9 million homes sold. The combination of rising mortgage rates, low inventory of available homes and tight credit have contributed to slowing sales, says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “There is a pent-up demand, but the bottleneck is in limited housing supply, due to the slow recovery in new home construction,” he notes. However, according to CNNMoney, the recovery in the housing market continues to be a bright light in the economic upturn, even though home building remains 25 percent below long-term averages. MHProNews has learned the median price of homes sold in November rose 7.3 percent from a year earlier to $244,500, although it dropped slightly from October, 2013.
