Spring can't come fast enough for the real estate business.
Due to the nation's manic winter season, housing starts and the housing market index decreased and stagnated, respectively. So, too, goes home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Existing-home sales declined 0.4 percent to an annually adjusted rate of 4.6 million in February, 200,000 lower than in January and 7.1 percent below the sales in February last year. In fact, this February saw the slowest pace of sales since July 2012.
"We had ongoing unusual weather disruptions across much of the country last month, with the continuing frictions of constrained inventory, restrictive mortgage lending standards and housing affordability less favorable than a year ago," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a statement.
But that should change as the season changes, he said.
"Some transactions are simply being delayed, so there should be improvement in the months ahead. With an expected pickup in job creation, home sales should trend up modestly over the course of the year."
The NAR also shared numbers that showed the median price of an existing home for all housing types is $189,000-9.1 percent higher than what it was in February 2013.
February data also showed a decrease in the time a home stays on the market. Whereas in January and in February 2013, a home stayed on the market for 67 and 74 days, respectively, a home was on the market for 62 days last month.
