The existing home sales number for January was revised drastically after an industry group discovered and corrected a software glitch.
Sales of existing homes in January actually rose 3.8 percent
from December's level, National Association of Realtors spokesman
Walter Molony said Wednesday. The association, which reports monthly sales figures, said on
Feb. 26 that January's sales fell 6.6 percent.
At that time, economists were rattled by the decline, fearing
that the housing sector, which has managed to stay solid during the
economic slowdown because of cheaper mortgage rates, might be
starting to really falter. Housing has been a bright spot for the
ailing economy and economists worried that a severe drop in housing
activity could push the economy into a downturn.
Economist Clifford Waldman of Waldman Associates said the
correction "changes the picture a little and shows that the
housing market is not falling apart."
Molony blamed the mistake on a computer software problem. He
said the association's vendor, whom he didn't identify, didn't
update data that is used to seasonally adjust sales figures. The
problem was detected this month, he said.
The software glitch forced the association to make corrections
back to 1998, Molony said, but he added: "most of the revisions
are very, very small."
Under the corrections, January's sales clocked in at a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.13 million, a 3.8 percent
increase over December's rate of 4.94 million, Molony said.
The association had previously reported January's sales at a
rate of 4.65 million.
Molony said annual sales figures also were corrected. As a
result, sales for all of 2000 totaled 5.113 million, a bit higher
than the 5.057 million previously reported, and continued to be the
second-highest sales total on record.
In 1999, sales came in at a corrected 5.205 million, up from
5.198 million and still marked a record year. In 1998, sales
actually totaled 4.970 million, instead of 4.956 million, he said.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report
