The Wall Street Journal

Sales of existing homes rose in February, reflecting an increase in shopping activity and in the number of homes for sale since the start of the year.

U.S. existing-home sales rose 4.2% in February from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million, the National Association of Realtors® said Thursday.

It was the first month-over-month increase in two months.

February sales were down 1.2% from a year earlier, snapping a four-month streak of year-over-year increases, NAR said.

The national median existing-home price in February was $398,400, up 3.8% from a year earlier and the highest median home price for any February, NAR said.

“Home buyers are slowly entering the market, in my view, even though mortgage rates have not changed all that much,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

But “to truly get sustained increase in home sales, we do need lower mortgage rates,” he said.

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