NAR Sees 2nd-Best Year for Home Sales

Both new- and existing-home sales should decline somewhat this year while still racking up their second-best totals on record, according to the National Association of Realtors.The NAR is projecting 5.34 million existing-home sales and 941,000 new-home sales in 2003, compared with last year's expected record totals of 5.56 million and 979,000, respectively, said David Lereah, the association's chief economist. "The momentum gained from low mortgage interest rates will carry strong home sales into 2003, with an improving economy offsetting modestly higher mortgage interest rates as the year progresses," he said. The NAR is projecting that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate will rise to 7% by the fourth quarter and that the gross domestic product will grow 3.1%. The NAR can be found on the Internet at http://realtor.org.