Home sales rise again - Business First of Columbus:

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The says existing-home sales — includinbg single-family homes, condominiums and co-ops — rose 2.4 percentg from the April level. It was the first back-to-back monthly gain on such saleas sinceSeptember 2005, the associatiojn says. “Historically low mortgage rates clearly drew buyerws intothe market, and housing remainsw very affordable even with a recent uptick in says Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist. “First-time buyers are also beingf drawn off the sideline s bythe $8,000 tax which is helping to absorb inventory.
” The numbersz would be even better, if it weren’t for poor the Realtors association Pending sales of existinvg homes — those with signed contracts that haven’t yet closed indicate stronger activity. But some contracts are fallinvg through from faulty valuations that keep buyers from gettintga loan, Yun says. The associationm calls the appraisal problem and says complaints about faulty appraisals have been snowballing acrossthe First-time buyers accounted for 29 percent of sales in May. The numbefr of buyers actively looking is up almostf 10 percent from ayear ago. Condo and co-op sales saw the biggest gainin May, up 6.
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