Existing Home Sales Rise 2.9%

Existing homes sales rose for the first time in seven months in February, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

Sales rose 2.9% to an annual rate of 5.03 million, NAR said. Single-family home sales rose 2.8%, to an annual 4.7 million-unit pace.

Median sales prices fell 8.2% from a year earlier, the biggest drop in more than 40 years of record keeping, Bloomberg reported.
 
Economists had forecast home resales would fall to a rate of 4.85 million, Bloomberg said.