February 25, 2005 10:00 AM, EST

Existing Home Sales Fall in January

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ales of previously owned homes fell 0.5% in January to a 5.94 million annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.

NAR made wide-ranging changes in how it reports its data, saying it had previously overestimated sales by homeowners. Because of the change, the annual rate reported was well below the 6.7 million forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.

Resales account for 85% of the residential real estate market in the United States. When a home is sold, trucks are usually used to transport household appliances and furniture.

Resold homes for all of 2004 totaled 5.96 million, still a record, and January sales held close to that level, NAR said.

January’s drop followed a revised 6.76 million annual sales pace the month before. Sales in the West rose 0.6% to an annual rate of 1.59 million units, the group said.

Northeastern existing-home sales declined 3.5% from December to a pace of 1.09 million units, while Midwest sales dropped 5.2% in January, to an annual rate of 1.47 million units.