2006 3rd Highest Sales Year!

WASHINGTON, January 25, 2007 -  Report from NAR

Existing-home sales eased but prices stabilized as inventories tightened in December, while 2006 was the third-highest sales year on record, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Total existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – eased 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 6.22 million units in December from a level of 6.27 million in November.  Sales were 7.9 percent lower than a 6.75 million-unit pace in December 2005.

There were 6,480,000 existing-home sales in all of 2006, down 8.4 percent from a record 7,075,000 in 2005.  The second highest total was 6,779,000 in 2004; NAR began tracking home sales in 1968.

- National Association of Realtors