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Home sales retreat
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October 26, 1998: 10:46 a.m. ET
September single-family homes sales fall 1.1 percent, resale market remains strong
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The sale of existing single-family homes took a turn for the worse last month as global economic uncertainty forced would-be buyers out of the market, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the annual rate of existing home sales slipped 1.1 percent to 4.68 million units, from an annual rate of 4.73 million units in August.
Last month's resale level, however, was 8.8 percent above the 4.3-million unit rate recorded in the same month last year.
Economists had predicted September home sales would rise about 0.3 percent, to an annual rate of 4.75 million units.
The 30-year Treasury bond rose 2/32 for a yield of 5.171 percent.
The resale market, however, remains vigorous and NAR President R. Layne Morrill expects strong buying in that sector to continue.
"Although we're coming off of unprecedented sales activity, the housing market is set for a soft landing with sales remaining at historically strong levels," said Morrill. "Existing home sales are still on track to set a new record this year, rising 12.7 percent over last year's record of 4.2 million units."
The association projects 4.75 million such sales in 1998 -- which would be the third year in history with more than 4 million resales.
The national median price for existing homes last month rose 4.4 percent from last September to $131,300.
At the same time, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage was 6.72 percent in September, down from 6.92 percent in August -- the lowest monthly mortgage interest rate since Freddie Mac began keeping records in 1971.
Existing home sales last month rose 5.8 percent in the West, but remained flat in the Northeast. At the same time the pace of home resales fell 4.9 percent from August and less than 1 percent in the Midwest. 
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