"The housing market continues to recover at a very gradual rate"
- Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets
Existing home sales unexpectedly fell in February to an annual rate of 4.59 million from 4.63 million in January, said the National Association of Realtors. Still, home sales for the three prior months were the best in five years.
"The U.S. housing market is stabilizing, and very gradually carving out a recovery," said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
"Housing demand should pick up in response to falling unemployment and attractive affordability."
"We finished the year on a strong note, entered the year optimistic and still feel fairly optimistic today," Larry Nicholson, president and chief executive officer at Ryland Group Inc., said March 6 at an investor conference in Orlando, Florida.
"The good thing about the traffic we are seeing is it's new traffic. We feel a lot better than we did a year ago. Hopefully, we can keep this trend up."
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