Existing-home sales edge up

Sales of previously owned homes nudged up in November, but that didn't improve the broader picture of a feeble national housing market racked by record-high foreclosures and harder-to-get credit.

The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that sales of existing single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses rose 0.4 percent in November from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units. Even with the small increase, the pace of sales was still the second-lowest on record going back to 1999. The lowest pace — 4.98 million — was registered in October.

"There's little reason to pop open any champagne corks," said Michael Larson, a real-estate analyst at Weiss Research Inc.

To be sure, sales are down 20 percent from November 2006, underscoring the problems plaguing the housing sector. Economists were calling for sales to either move up slightly or hold steady for November.

Home prices continued to sink. The median price of a home sold last month was $210,200. That marked a 3.3 percent drop from a year ago. It was the fifth biggest annual decline on record. The median price is where half sell for more and half sell for less.

In contrast to the relatively bleak national housing picture, Utah led the nation in annual home price appreciation from last year, according to Zions Bank chief economist Jeff Thredgold, although the state is a buyer's market for new homes. The latest data from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight noted that the average Utah home — with a 30-year mortgage of less than $417,000 — rose 12.9 percent during the 12-month period ending Sept. 30.

"The lower-end houses are still doing well; there's still a good market," said Thredgold. "There's still a pretty good balance between supply and demand."

Thredgold said the more troubling aspect of Utah's housing landscape is that the state's higher-end housing market is out of balance, "with simply too many houses priced at $500,000 and above."

Such homes, on average, are "unlikely to appreciate in 2008, unless and until fewer homes are for sale, more buyers step up, and jumbo mortgage finance activity returns to more traditional pricing," he said.

He estimated about 2,600 homes for sale across the Wasatch Front have a value of at least $500,000. "That is way more than the market can handle," he said.