Resales Stats Now Include Condos, Co-ops

Existing-homes sales held steady in January under a new reporting series by the National Association of Realtors that combines single-family, condominium, and cooperative sales for the first time.The NAR reported that resales edged down slightly from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.81 million in December to 6.80 million in January. The NAR still includes data on existing single-family sales, which fell 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.94 million in January. However, the Realtors have revised their monthly sales reports dating back to 1989 due to new census data, and changes in methodology and data collection. Single-family sales in 2004 were revised downward by 10.6%, to 5.96 million, but it is still a record year. Despite the revisions, the characteristics and trends in the resales series have "not changed at all," NAR chief economist David Lereah said. Mr. Lereah also explained that the NAR is including condominiums, which constitute 12% of the resales, in the report because it is finally comfortable with representing the data on a monthly basis. Condo sales were previously reported quarterly. Based on the revised data (including SF & condos), resales totaled 6.78 million in 2004 and set a new record. The NAR can be found online at http://www.realtor.org.