Existing Home Sales Fall for Third Time in Four Months

Existing home sales for March fell for the third time in four months, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales fell 2.6% to a 4.48 million annual rate, from 4.6 million in February.

The level was short of economists’ forecasts of a 4.61 million rate, Bloomberg reported.

Sales of existing single-family homes fell 2.5% to an annual rate of 3.97 million.

Sales fell in three of four national regions, led by a 7.4% drop in the West. They were unchanged in the Midwest.