Sales of existing homes were down 8.38% in March, after being up for three months in a row.  April’s sales figures will be released in late May and it will be interesting to see if this is a trend or an aberration.

Seasonally adjusted, sales in March were at a pace to sell 6.12 million homes this year.  That is about equal with the number of homes sold in 2003, which was actually a good year.

For month to month comparisons, sales were down 8.38% nationally, and in all regions of the country, down 10.90% in the Midwest, 9.09% in the West, 8.2% in the Northeast, and 6.23% in the South. 

Compared to last year at this time, national sales declined by 11.3%.  Regionally, national year-to-year sales figures fell as follows:  5.08% in the Northeast, 9.74% in the South, 13.66% in the Midwest, and down 16.67% in the West.

We will report on April sales near the end of May, when figures are released by the National Association of Realtors.