Sales of existing homes  in the U.S. fell 9.6% in February, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said today, in a sign that the U.S. housing market is still depressed.  The figure was worse than the 3.9% decline anticipated by the  economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires   and questions whether the  U.S. housing market is beginning to recover  or will continue to fall.
—Lawrence Yun, NARA combination of foreclosures and short sales,  where the mortgage holder sells the house for less than owed on the mortgage, accounted for almost 40% of the  sales. 
Millions of foreclosures have forced down home prices and the number of foreclosures are predicted to rise this year. The inventory of existing homes listed for sale rose 3.5% at the end of February, a 8.6-month supply at the current sales rate. As more homes are listed in the spring, the inventory of houses for sale will probably increase. A five or six month inventory is usually considered a healthy balance between supply and demand.
According to Moody's Analytics, another 3.6 million bank-owned  homes and possible foreclosures will be added to the inventory by 2013, adding to the 6.7 million home foreclosures since 2006. Thus housing inventories will probably continue to remain high, delaying the point when prices stabilize. The median sales price in February fell 5.2%, down  to a price level not seen since  April 2002.
"We have an uneven, choppy recovery,"  said NAR's chief economist Lawrence Yun. "Hopefully it is a recovery that is taking place." 

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Existing US home sales fall 9.6% in February