WASHINGTON – March 19, 2010 – Mortgage rates held below the 5 percent threshold for the third straight week as the Federal Reserve prepares to end a program that has kept rates at or near record lows.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage edged up to 4.96 percent this week from 4.95 percent a week earlier, the mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Rates dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent in December and have hovered around 5 percent since, kept down by the Fed’s $1.25 trillion program to buy up mortgage securities issued by Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae.
The Fed said this week that this program would end on March 31, as expected. But some analysts fear that once the program ends, mortgage rates could rise. That could weaken the fragile recovery in housing and the overall economy. Still, the Fed has left the door open to extending the program if the economy weakens.
The central bank has been the dominant buyer of mortgage securities over the past year. Without the Fed’s participation, “it may take a few weeks for the market to sort out whether there’s enough demand to soak up the supply,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com.
Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day, often in line with long-term Treasury bonds.
This week, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 4.33 percent, up from 4.32 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.
Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.09 percent, up from 4.05 percent a week earlier. Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 4.12 percent from 4.22 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount.
The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey averaged 0.7 of a point for 30-year loans and 0.6 of a point for the other loans in Freddie Mac’s survey.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press, Alan Zibel, AP real estate writer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Lakes of Pine Run, Ormond Beach - Announcing a price reduction on 8-201 Orange Grove, Ormond Bch, FL, a 1,100 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm single story. Now 
MLS® $114,900 - Ormond Beach Condo.
Property information
WASHINGTON – March 19, 2010 – Housing activity is expected to rebound later this year but at a slower pace than previously projected, according to the March 2010 Economic Outlook released today by Fannie Mae’s Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis Group.
The report says the drop in new and existing home sales disappointed analysts, but the setback is viewed as temporary with gains expected in the second quarter and trending up on a sustainable basis by year-end.
The outlook continues to call for moderate economic growth of 3 percent for 2010 as the labor market appears poised to create jobs, the service sector shows improvement, and consumer spending joins in as part of the economic storyline. Consumer spending grew a solid 0.3 percent in January, suggesting a pickup in the first quarter despite the possibility of a slow down in February.
“The recent growth in consumer spending is a positive sign for first quarter gains,” says Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan. “However, anxiety over job and income prospects continues to weigh on consumer confidence which will likely lead to moderate spending growth in the coming quarters. Strengthening growth in the service sector and more favorable financial conditions overall keep us optimistic that we are moving forward with the recovery, albeit at a lower trajectory than previously forecast.”
The Economic Outlook includes interest rates, the housing market, the mortgage market, and the overall economic climate. To read the full March 2010 Economic Outlook, visit the Economics & Mortgage Market Analysis site at .
© 2010 Florida Realtors®
PHILADELPHIA – March 12, 2010 – With the highly touted federal mortgage-modification program falling short of its target numbers, the government has looked into alternatives to foreclosure and come up with a possible, though not original, solution: The short sale, a transaction in which the lender accepts less than the balance owed on the mortgage.
Beginning April 5, under new Treasury Department rules, short sales will be presented as the potential next step for homeowners who are rejected by or fail to make the grade for the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
RealtyTrac chief economist Rick Sharga suggested that offering the short-sale program is the administration’s acknowledgment that its current mortgage-modification effort “can’t solve the foreclosure problem by itself.”
Kevin Gillen, vice president of Econsult of Philadelphia, said there was both statistical and anecdotal evidence that lenders have been holding off on foreclosure proceedings. “No doubt that part of this is due to staff shortages relative to the volume of delinquencies, but it’s also due to uncertainty over near-term government policy,” he said.
Sharga sees positive elements in the new guidelines: Both homeowners and mortgage servicers will have financial incentive to participate in short sales; there are limited payouts for second lienholders, “and paperwork is standardized, which makes it easier for everyone to comply.”
The new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative program will run until Dec. 31, 2012. Among its provisions:
• The lender must offer a short sale in writing to the borrower within 30 days after the borrower either is ruled ineligible for mortgage modification under the HAMP program or has been ruled unable to sustain payments under a trial plan.
• A borrower may receive up to $1,500 to assist with relocation expenses.
• Incentives of $1,000 will be offered to lenders for each completed short sale. For each deed in lieu of foreclosure, in which the borrower voluntarily transfers the property to the lender, $1,000 will be paid to the lender.
• A lender with a second lien on the property will get up to $3,000 of the short-sale proceeds, or can pursue a short sale outside the program if it doesn’t agree to share.
• The lender will not be permitted to reduce the real estate agent’s commission after an offer on a property has been received.
Currently, short sales don’t make up a big piece of the real estate market, either regionally or nationwide, for a variety of reasons. One is they tend to be difficult and time-consuming.
“I handled a short sale of a condo in Bensalem (Pa.) that took a year,” said real estate broker Christopher J. Artur. Typically, there is “so much aggravation and red tape involved that some buyers get so fed up they walk away.”
Nationally, just 14 percent of all existing-home transactions in January were short sales, the National Association of Realtors says. In the Philadelphia region, they made up 6.9 percent of total homes for sale at the end of January, said Art Herling, regional vice president at Long & Foster Real Estate.
“I call short sales ‘organized chaos,’ “ said Noelle Barbone, office manager of Weichert Realtors’ Media office. Each lender works short sales differently, “at their own pace, and it depends on how behind (the homeowners) are on mortgage payments, if the house is worth less than they owe, and whether or not foreclosure paperwork has been filed.”
The new program is unlikely to make short sales easier, even as an alternative to foreclosure. “What one needs in a short sale is time,” Barbone said.
But these days, as buyers race to meet the April 30 agreement-of-sale deadline for the federal tax credit, time is money.
“I had first-time buyers this weekend with 20 percent down, and we found two houses they liked,” said Cheryl Miller of Long & Foster’s Blue Bell office. Both were short sales, however, and neither the seller nor the agent could give a definite timeline for even seeing an executed agreement of sale, she said.
“Timing is pretty critical for the first-time buyer, and viable houses that are short sales are remaining unsold” as a result, Miller said.
Sharga doesn’t think the new short-sale program will be the answer the government seeks. “While we’ll likely see an increase in the number of short sales, I doubt that the reality will live up to the hype.”
Copyright © 2010 The Philadelphia Inquirer; distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON – March 15, 2010 – The Obama administration’s mortgage relief plan has helped only about 16 percent of borrowers who signed up since its launch last year, while hundreds of thousands of homeowners remain in limbo.
The Treasury Department says that as of last month, about 170,000 homeowners had completed the application process and had their loan payments reduced permanently. That compares with nearly 1.1 million homeowners who have enrolled since the plan started.
The program is designed to lower borrowers’ monthly payments by reducing mortgage rates to as low as 2 percent for five years and extending loan terms to as long as 40 years. To complete the process, homeowners need to make three payments and provide proof of their income, plus a letter documenting their financial hardship.
About 90,000 homeowners have dropped out so far.
Homeowners in two California metro areas – Los Angeles and Riverside – have received the most help, with a combined 18,000 homeowners receiving permanent modifications.
But only 3,900 borrowers in Las Vegas had completed the program, a dismal showing in a city hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis.
Many analysts have been warning for months that the majority of borrowers will not complete the process because they are found to be ineligible during the trial phase. Housing counselors complain that many homeowners are waiting many months for a decision.
Meg Reilly, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, said lenders are double-checking calculations on denied applications, and that has led to delays.
Nevertheless, dissatisfaction with the program is widespread. There have been behind-the-scenes talks in the nation’s capital about how to get it back on track.
The best solution, many analysts say, is an effort to reduce the outstanding balance for borrowers who owe far more on their homes than the properties are worth.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press, Alan Zibel, AP real estate writer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tudor Style is Lovley
• 2,858 sq. ft., 3 bath, 4 bdrm single story - $795,000 - Intracoastal Riverfront
Melrose, Ormond Beach - HAVE YOU BEEN LOOKING FOR A RIVERFRONT HOME THAT YOU DON`T HAVE TO TEAR DOWN? OR REMODEL? OR FIX UP? WELL, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU!! THE ONE TIME OWNERS HAVE PAID ATTENTION TO DETAIL WITH THIS IMMACULATE HOME. THIS CUSTOM BUILT HOME WAS CONSTRUCTED BY A COMMERCIAL BUILDER. EVERYTHING FROM FOUNDATION TO ROOF WAS BUILT ABOVE NORMAL SPECS. OWNER HAS PHOTO DIARY OF ENTIRE CONST. PERIOD. THIS HOME OF CONCRETE BLOCK AND STUCCO SUFFERED NO DAMAGE DURING THE HURRICANES OF 2004. HOME`S ELEVATION SITS 85 FT. OFF THE STREET AND ABOVE STREET LEVEL IN CASE OF STORM WATERS. THE EXT. HAS BEEN NEWLY PAINTED. A/C NEW IN 2005. THE YARD IS SURROUNDED BY A BEAUTIFUL WROUGHT IRON FENCE WITH AN ELECTRIC GATE. SUNRISE VIEWS AND EVENING LIGHTS OF THE GRANADA BRIDGE ARE SEEN FROM THE KITCHEN, DINING ROOM AND MASTER SUITE. A SPLIT FLOOR PLAN WITH 3 BED. AND 2 1/2 BATHS, PLUS AN OFFICE IN THE MAIN HOUSE, 10 FT. CEILINGS AND TILE FLOORS THROUGHOUT. FORMAL LIVING AND DINING ROOMS ADD TO THE ELEGANCE OF THIS HOME. THE LIVING ROOM CENTERS ARO UND A LOVELY FIREPLACE. THE 21X14 EAT-IN KITCHEN CAN ACCOMMODATE THE WHOLE FAMILY. REFRIG. NEW IN 2005. MASTER BATH HAS A BIG SPA TUB, DOUBLE SINKS AND LOTS OF STORAGE. THE DETACHED 2-CAR OVERSIZED GARAGE SITS BEHIND THE HOUSE WITH A SIDE ENTRY. IT INCLUDES 600 SQ.FT. OF GUEST QUARTERS ON THE SECOND LEVEL with a KITCHENETTE & BATH. 104X200 SQ.FT. LOT, PLUS RIPARIAN RIGHTS TO RIVER. PRIVATE BACKYARD WITH PATIO AND CITRUS TREES.
Property information
Melrose, Ormond Beach - Announcing a price reduction on 138 S Beach St, a 2,858 sq. ft., 3 bath, 4 bdrm single story. Now $795,000 - Intracoastal Riverfront.
Property information
NEW YORK – March 15, 2010 – Banks are again offering home equity loans.
Lenders are expected to make about $36 billion in new home equity loans over the next year, according to Moody’s Economy.com. That’s actually more than the $34 billion in home equity loans made in 2008.
The difference will be the way the money is spent, says Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac. Most of it will go for necessary home improvements.
“Consumers are better at managing their own personal balance sheet as a result of the difficult recession we went through,” Nothaft says.
Source: Bloomberg, Kathleen M. Howley, Prashant Gopal, John Gittelsohn (03/11/2010)
© Copyright 2010 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
WASHINGTON – Feb. 22, 2010 – According to the January Realtors® Confidence Index, buyers continue to be discouraged with short sales, resulting in foreclosures that could have been prevented.
“Our members report that short sales are often riddled with delays and red tape,” says National Association of Realtors® (NAR) President Vicki Cox Golder. In response, NAR has created tools to help Realtors understand new laws created to simplify short sales.
The new laws, effective April 5, 2010, implement the U.S. government’s Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA), designed to help people who cannot be helped under the existing Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by simplifying and streamlining the use of short sales and deeds-in-lieu of foreclosures. To participate, homeowners must meet certain requirements; if so, both homeowners and servicers qualify for incentive payments.
To help Realtors® understand HAFA and its guidelines, NAR released a brochure about the program and it offers additional resources online, including government forms and guidelines, a video explaining the guidelines and a list of frequently asked questions.
“The new guidelines and incentives as part of HAFA are a crucial step towards reducing problems with the short sale process, and Realtors are ready to help make this new program a success,” says Golder.
In addition to its resources on HAFA, NAR launched a Short Sales and Foreclosures Certification Program in August 2009. The SFR program is offered by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council of NAR and includes training on how to manage short sale, foreclosure and real estate owned transactions.
The NAR short sale information is available on its website at:
© 2010 Florida Realtors®
TAMPA, Fla. – Feb. 23, 2010 – With so many distressed homeowners owing more than their homes are worth, short sales have become lifelines.
These types of sales make up more than half of the homes on the market in the Tampa Bay area. Generally, this means the mortgage lender has agreed to allow the home to sell for market value. The lender writes off the rest of the debt, and the homeowner walks away.
But is it really this simple?
Lenders are increasingly adding language to the approval package, reserving the right to pursue the deficiency later – that is, the difference between what you owed on the house and what it sold for.
Some homeowners, so anxious to get out of a pending foreclosure, skip right over that part of the letter. Some understand but opt to take their chances, betting they won’t hear from the lender again.
For some lucky buyers, this has been the case – so far. They’ve sold their home as a short sale, moved on, and haven’t had any problems. But other lenders require the seller to agree upfront to pay back a set amount.
‘It seems fair’
Realtor Paul De La Torre, of Keller Williams, said lenders almost always ask his clients to agree to pay at least some of the debt back. Lenders’ requests, he said, range from 15 percent of the balance to agreeing to a payment plan – such as $80 a month for 15 years.
“It’s seems fair,” De La Torre said. “Some of these people are walking away from a huge amount. More folks need to consider it could be much worse if the lender comes back for the full deficiency later.”
Lenders don’t always go after short sale homeowners. But in Florida, lenders can wait up to five years to file for a court judgment to make the borrower pay. After the judgment is granted, the lender has 20 years to collect the cash.
This is particularly frightening because lenders could wait until the debtor is back on their feet to act. The homeowner could recover financially only to discover years later that they owe the bank tens of thousands of dollars.
Insurance companies
De La Torre said homeowners are even more likely to be required to pay a deficiency if they have mortgage insurance. (Borrowers who have less than 20 percent equity in their homes typically are required by their lenders to cover this insurance in case they default.)
Mortgage insurance companies “are getting pretty strict about short sales,” he said. “They have to sign off on the short sale, too, and many are not only asking for promissory notes but are ordering their own appraisals.”
Deficiency judgments aren’t only a problem in short sale cases. They can happen following a foreclosure, too.
A lender can take back the home, sell it and then come back after the borrower for the difference between that amount and the balance on the old mortgage. This is allowed in Florida and most other states.
So what can a homeowner do?
Not much, in the case of a foreclosure. But when negotiating a short sale, the homeowner must sign off on the paperwork, too, said Jim Davis, a real estate agent with Century 21 A&M Realty.
Borrowers can ask to be released from the debt, and sometimes that works. In the past three to six months, though, Davis said he’s seen many lenders require some form of payment.
That’s where negotiation can kick in.
Some lenders detail how much money they might come after later. Others don’t specify, and that may mean the full amount. Davis recommends anyone signing a short sale agreement insist the lenders be specific about deficiency plans. Read the fine print, he said, and ask lots of questions.
If they don’t, it may haunt them later.
Copyright © 2010 Tampa Tribune, Fla., Shannon Behnken. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
McLEAN, Va. – Feb. 12, 2010 – Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell slightly this week, dipping below 5 percent,
the mortgage financier Freddie Mac said Thursday.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.97 percent this week, down from an average of 5.01 percent last week.
Last year at this time, the rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 5.16 percent, Freddie Mac said.
Rates fell to a record low of 4.71 percent in early December. They have held around 5 percent thanks to a Federal Reserve
program to pump $1.25 trillion into mortgage-backed securities to try to keep rates low and make home buying more affordable.
That program is set to end March 31.
Low rates also can spur refinancing activity. More than two out of three mortgage applications were for refinance transactions
over the first six weeks of this year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country.
Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day, often in line with long-term Treasury bonds.
The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.34 percent from 4.40 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.
Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 4.19 percent, down from 4.27 percent a week earlier.
Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 4.33 percent from 4.22 percent.
The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. The nationwide fee for loans in Freddie Mac’s survey
averaged 0.7 point for 30-year mortgages. It averaged 0.6 point for 15-year, five-year and one-year loans.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Feb. 9, 2010 – Selling a property in this tough market can seem like a challenge. Here are four factors that actually make this a good time to post a For-Sale sign:
• Sell low and buy low. Because all property values are down, the loss on the property a homeowner sells is really only a paper loss because the next property he buys also will be a bargain.
If he buys smartly, when prices come back up in a few years, he’ll be in better shape.
• Downpayment help is widely available. While nothing-down loans have disappeared, it’s easy to find downpayment assistance for lower-income and first-time homebuyers.
Programs vary all over the country, but one good way to find them is to search online for “downpayment assistance programs” and the name of your region.
• Your Uncle Sam has money to share. Besides the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit and the $6,500 move-up credit, there are an array of energy tax credits that can make home improvements pay off in cash.
• Good help is available. Really talented real estate practitioners, contractors and designers are available and eager for business.
Source: McClatchy Tribune, Kate Forgach (02/07/2010)
© Copyright 2010 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
WASHINGTON – Feb. 2, 2010 – Effective yesterday, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) started providing mortgage insurance for some home purchases in which the seller bought the property and held it for less than 90 days.
The agency changed what is known as the “anti-flipping rule” to speed up sales of renovated homes in communities with too many bank-owned and foreclosed homes, says FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens. Waiving the 90-day rule encourages private investors to buy vacant properties, fix them up, and quickly sell them to buyers who are eligible to buy them using FHA financing.
FHA’s change “is going to be absolutely terrific” for first-time homebuyers hoping to take advantage of the tax credit, says Bobby Taylor, an associate with Coldwell Banker Mountain West Real Estate in Salem, Ore.
The waiver is limited to sales that meet the following general conditions:
• All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.
• In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions.
• The waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.
• Specific conditions and other details of this new temporary policy are in the text of the waiver, available on HUD’s website: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/waivpropflip2010.pdf.
Source: Washington Post (01/30/2010)
© Copyright 2010 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688
Treasury officials said Thursday that starting June 1, borrowers will be able to submit a streamlined package of documents,
including two pay stubs, to qualify for the Obama administration Making Home Affordable loan modifications.
If borrowers make their initial trial payments ontime, they will be give a permanent loan modification.
"This is not about not getting documents back and forth and the servers losing it," said Phyllis Caldwell, chief of Treasury's Homeownership Preservation Office.
The focus of the revised rules, she said, is to help move the almost 1 million borrowers nationwide in trial loan modifications into permanent new deals.
Streamlining the process is good for borrowers and banks were having trouble with the paperwork as well.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was in Miami last week to announce big expansion plans for the bank. He said the pace of loan modifications
"is getting better," but he also alluded to the paperwork problems that lenders and loan servicers face. The biggest problem, he said, was verifying income.
I've been told by some lenders that if an employee gets overtime pay, for example, that borrower has to get a letter from his employer saying the intention is to
continue paying for overtime. That's a lot to ask. Even so, Dimon said the Obama loan modification system is not a failure and that the number of loans receiving
permanent modifications will improve over time.
At present, 25 percent of all mortgage loans that are behind have received any sort of offer of a modification. Within that group, only 14 percent have become a
permanent modification. That's for all lenders.
Loan modifications are supposed to be one way to head off foreclosure.
More than 441,000 Florida mortgages in foreclosure and payments are late on more than 422,000 Florida loans,
according to figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Jan. 25, 2010 – Florida’s existing home sales rose in December, marking 16 months that sales activity has increased in the year-to-year comparison, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®.
Existing home sales rose 33 percent last month with a total of 14,630 homes sold statewide compared to 11,013 homes sold in December 2008, according to Florida Realtors. Statewide existing home sales last month increased 4.3 percent over statewide sales activity in November.
Florida Realtors also reported a 91 percent increase in statewide sales of existing condos in December compared to the previous year’s sales figure; statewide existing condo sales last month rose 22 percent over the total units sold in November.
Seventeen of Florida’s metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) reported increased existing home sales and higher condo sales in December. A majority of the state’s MSAs have reported increased sales for 18 consecutive months.
Florida’s median sales price for existing homes last month was $140,400; a year ago, it was $155,300 for a 10 percent decrease. Housing industry analysts with the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) note that sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.
The national median sales price for existing single-family homes in November 2009 was $171,900, down 4.4 percent from a year earlier, according to NAR. In California, the statewide median resales price was $304,520 in November; in Massachusetts, it was $285,000; in Maryland, it was $245,569; and in New York, it was $210,000.
According to NAR’s latest outlook, home sales are seeing a boost from the federal homebuyer tax credit. “There are many more potential buyers who can enter the market in the months ahead,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Activity should ramp up for another surge in the spring when buyers take advantage of the expanded tax credit, which hopefully will take us into a self-sustaining market in the second half of 2010. In all, 4.4 million households are expected to claim the tax credit before it expires, and balance should be restored to the housing sector with inventories continuing to decline.”
In Florida’s year-to-year comparison for condos, 5,968 units sold statewide last month compared to 3,132 units in December 2008 for an increase of 91 percent. The statewide existing condo median sales price last month was $107,000; in December 2008 it was $130,300 for an 18 percent decrease. The national median existing condo price was $178,000 in November 2009, according to NAR.
Interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.93 percent last month, significantly lower than the average rate of 5.29 percent in December 2008, according to Freddie Mac. Florida Realtors’ sales figures reflect closings, which typically occur 30 to 90 days after sales contracts are written.
Among the state’s larger markets, the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton MSA reported a total of 849 homes sold in December compared to 638 homes a year earlier for a 33 percent increase. The market’s existing home median sales price last month was $247,900; a year ago it was $246,000 for an increase of 1 percent. A total of 763 condos sold in the MSA in December, up 45 percent over the 527 units sold in December 2008. The existing condo median price last month was $111,400; a year earlier, it was $112,900 for a decrease of 1 percent.
Related: Dec. existing-home sales down, prices rise; 2009 sales up, says NAR