Higher Interest Rates Cause Another Fall in House Sales
Sales of existing houses fell in February for the second straight month ns higher interest rates pushed buyers out of the market, a real estate group said yesterday.</br></br>Sales of existing single-family houses dropped 3.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.44	million units, the slowest pace since the 3.38 million rate recorded in March 1988, the National Association of Realtors reported.</br></br>weakness in sales to the Federal Reserve BoardÛªs year-long campaign to drive up interest rates in an effort to slow the economy and ease inflationary pressures.</br></br>"The Fed's credit stance is working,Û ?;:d Realtors President Ira Gri-bin. ÛÏInterest rates are pushed up and buyers are pushed out.Û</br></br>Fixed-rate home mortgages last month averaged between 10.55 percent and 10.78 percent, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. On one-year adjustable rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate 8.56 percent to