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INSTANT VIEW: Key points and reaction to home sales data ReutersTue Apr 22, 2008 10:23am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The pace of existing home sales in the United States fell in March to a 4.93 million-unit annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday in a report that showed the U.S. housing market continues to struggle. U.S. home prices rose about 0.6 percent between February 2008 and January while prices fell 2.4 percent during the 12-month period ended in February, a federal housing regulator said on Tuesday. KEY POINTS: * Economists polled by Reuters were expecting home resales to fall to a 4.92 million-unit pace, off from the February rate of 5.03 million that was left unchanged. * The inventory of homes for sale swelled by 40,000 to 4.06 million homes or a 9.9 months' supply at the current sales pace. * The median national home price declined 7.7 percent from a year ago to $200,700. COMMENTS: BRIAN DOLAN, CHIEF CURRENCY STRATEGIST, FOREX.COM, BEDMINSTER, NEW JERSEY: "The existing home sales were weaker, but not disastrous, so we saw a little bit of a rebound there in dollar/yen. But I would point out that the inventory of unsold homes rose again, so the housing situation is not improving. At the moment, it's not showing signs of rapidly deteriorating further. The market is in a sort of holding pattern where risk has been put back on to a limited extent. The market is still very sensitive and uncertain whether this rebound in stock markets can continue. Despite the optimism that emerged from earnings last week, it feels like it's already fading." SCOTT BROWN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA: "No surprises -- existing home sales were right in line with expectations and I don't think the market's paying much attention to the Richmond Fed data." JIM PAULSEN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, WELLS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, MINNESOTA: "Ultimately the way that this crisis ends is that people decide the economy has bottomed. The key thing there is not that housing recovers, it's that housing activity bottoms. You're starting to see that. Existing home sales have been flat since about September. There's a definitive change from the free-fall we saw in February '07 to September '07. Housing doesn't have to recover, it can stay miserable and stop collapsing." BOB MOULTON, PRESIDENT, AMERICANA MORTGAGE GROUP, MANHASSET, NEW YORK: "Existing home sales are down, the median home price is down. Getting money is a little harder than it was even three or four months ago, and as long as it continues to be difficult to get financing I don't think that these numbers are going to be getting better any time soon." GIRI CHERUKURI, HEAD TRADER, OAKBROOK INVESTMENTS LLC, LISLE, ILLINOIS: "It looks like it's pretty much in line, and the price number was good. I think that gives some encouragement for the state of the economy. Not too much of a reaction (in stocks), but I think it'll provide some support today." CHRISTOPHER LOW, CHIEF ECONOMIST, FTN FINANCIAL, NEW YORK: "The most remarkable thing is how close it was to consensus. A little more strength than I would have expected in condos and coops, but I wouldn't read too much into it because we're still down 25 percent year-on-year. January and February seasonally is the slowest time of the year. Because of that it's difficult to seasonally adjust, and as we get into March and April, the numbers are more meaningful. The fact that sales are not even holding up there, that's disappointing. And there's still deterioration in prices." ADAM YORK, ECONOMIC ANALYST, WACHOVIA SECURITIES, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: "It declined basically in line with what we were looking for -- we think sales still have a couple more months of declines left. We are not really looking for a bottom until maybe the summer. Existing home sales is a very lagging indicator and there was not a lot of surprise in the data. "I don't think anything here will change the Fed's view of the housing landscape or the economy in general, and I don't think it will change economists' views either as this was a largely expected number." KEITH HEMBRE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, FAF ADVISORS, MINNEAPOLIS: EXISTING HOME SALES: "The month's supply is up. Inventory is high and is staying too high. Condo supply seems to be at record at 12.8 months. We are going to see more downward pressure on prices given the supply overhang." OFHEO PRICE INDEX: "We had a bigger-than-expected drop in January so we average it with February so we are down 0.2 percent. I wouldn't put a lot weight on this number. I think Case-Shiller is a better number."
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