Home sales rise again - Memphis Business Journal:

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The says existing home sales, including single-family homes, condos and rose 2.4 percent in May. It was the first back-to-back monthly gain in existing home sales sincreSeptember 2005. “Historically low mortgage rates clearly drew buyerd intothe market, and housing remains very affordablw even with a recent uptick in said NAR chief economisr Lawrence Yun. “First time buyersz are also being drawn off the sidelines bythe $8,0009 tax credit, which is helping to absorb inventory.” The numbers could be even better, if it weren’yt for poor appraisals, says the Realtors association.
Whilse pending sales of existinghomes - those with signedc contracts but not closed - indicatr stronger activity, some contracts are falling through from faultt valuations that keep buyers from getting a said Yun. The NAR calls the appraisaol problem serious, and says complaintxs about faulty appraisals have been snowballing acrossthe country. First time buyers accountec for 29 percent of salesin May. The number of buyers actively looking is up almost 10 percent from ayear ago. Condominium and cooperativs sales saw the biggest gainin May, up 6.1 percenft from April.