A Slow Start to the Best Year in Home Sales in a Decade

With new home sales data in for February, we're currently running 24,000 home sales (non-seasonally adjusted) below what we saw in February of 2007. The big snow storm in February may have dampened sales in parts of the country. However, we expect sales to rebound as we enter the spring home buying season giving us the best year for home sales in a decade.

Existing-home sales decreased 7.1 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million in February. Whereas, new home sales rose 2 percent from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 512,000 units.

Currently existing home sales are down 8 percent, and new home sales are down 39 percent compared to 2007 through February on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.

Mortgage rates are affordable and we expect rates to stay under 4 percent through the spring. However, our forecast is for rates to move above 4 percent later in the year. So if you're looking to move, you're likely to save money by buying sooner rather than later.