Home Sales Weaker, Prices Lower

U.S. home sales for the year will be weaker, and price appreciation will be smaller than previously forecast, a realtors group said on Wednesday.

In its monthly economic outlook, the National Association of Realtors lowered expectations for the two key housing indicators but said strong economic fundamentals signal that the market will stabilize.

Given a positive economic backdrop of lower interest rates and job creation, we expect sales activity to pick up early next year.

For this year, though, the group expects the housing market to end weaker than it had previously predicted.

During the white-hot housing market of 2005, prices appreciated 12.4 %.