Sales have weakened again, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The NAR chief economist, Lawrence Yun, notes that this decline was expected, however. "The quickly deteriorating conditions in the job market, stock market, and consumer confidence in October and November have knocked down home sales to another level. We hope the home sales impact from the stock market crash turns out to be short-lived, as was the case in 1987 and 2001," he said. 

There are still isolated areas that have been seeing rising activity, namely in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida markets, where the most recovery is needed. But this is due in large part to distressed properties being bought up at huge discounts.

Regionally, according to NAR, existing-home sales in the Northeast dropped 12.0 percent. The median price in the Northeast was $257,700, down 0.1 percent from November 2007.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest fell 7.4 percent in November. The median price in the Midwest was $142,400, down 11.2 percent from a year ago.

In the South, existing-home sales dropped 10.9 percent. The median price in the South was $154,500, which is 10.6 percent lower than November 2007.

Existing-home sales in the West declined 4.3 percent. The median price in the West was $242,500, down 25.5 percent from a year ago.

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Published: January 2, 2009

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