WASHINGTON — Home resales posted an unexpected increase last month as consumers snapped up bargain-basement foreclosures in California and Florida, closing out the worst year for the U.S. real-estate market in more than a decade.
The nationwide median sales price plunged to $175,400 last month, down 15.3 percent from $207,000 a year earlier. That was the lowest price since May 2003 and the biggest year-over-year drop on rec ords going back to 1968.
With sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties making up about 45 percent of sales, many economists expect prices to keep falling.
“I don’t think we’re close to a bottom yet,” said Michelle Meyer, a Barclays Capital economist who sees prices falling another 15 percent this year. “We’re still very far away from a normal housing market.”
If President Barack Obama’s administration enacts a plan to keep borrowers in their homes, analysts said, the number of foreclosures on the market might decline, but it’s still unclear how successful any government efforts will be.
Home resales rose 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.74 million in December, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million in November, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.
Without adjusting for seasonal factors, sales nationwide were up 1.1 percent from a year earlier, reflecting a surge of more than 36 percent in the Western states.
