This past February the United States saw their lowest drops in home prices in nearly nine years, indicating the housing market is still a long way from recovery. The National Association of Realtors are reporting that sales dropped by 9.6 percent month over month. The actual drop was even greater than the most pessimistic forecasters had predicted. Analysts said that the hazardous winter weather we received in January could be a great contributing factor into why we had such a drastic fall  in February sales. The NAR also agree that difficulty obtaining credit and home appraisals  that fell short of sale prices weighed on sales.

Economists are hoping that with the labor market improving that the home sales in upcoming months will rise, but ever dropping home prices could throw a wrench in their hopes. The National Association of Realtors said the median home price dropped 5.2 percent in February, making it the lowest since April 2002. They believe this is due to the relentless downward pressure on prices from a market flooded by foreclosures. While sales fell in all parts of the country last month, economists said the pattern was likely to become less uniform in the months ahead, with regions where the labor market is fairly strong showing more life than others.

 This information was based off of an article written by Lucia Mutikani of Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/21/us-usa-economy-housing-idUSTRE72F3XG20110321?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsafternoon