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The news from real estate was that the volume of sales of existing homes increased in February after six straight months of decline. ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi (no link) called the minor uptick "a sliver of hope" after "a long winter frozen in place." On CBS, Anthony Mason put the month's data in context: "Nationally home sales are still down nearly 24% from a year ago" with the median sale price slashed in a year from $213K to $196K. Both Mason and Alfonsi speculated about where the market finds its bottom. Mason suggested prices have another 10% to fall. Alfonsi advised us to monitor how long a home is for sale before a buyer appears: two years ago it took 45 days to sell a house; now the average is six to nine months.
NBC's occasional series Nightly 101 looked at the impact on urban renewal projects that use high-rise condominiums to revitalize downtowns. Chris Jansing showed us stalled projects with penthouse views in Puget Sound, southern Florida, downtown Los Angeles and even Utah: "Urban revitalization depends on money from babyboomers. If you cannot sell your house in the suburbs you cannot buy the condo in the city." On ABC, Pierre Thomas completed the day's real estate round-up by reporting on the prosecution of so-called rescue scams: firms that claim to help homeowners avoid eviction from foreclosure by temporarily taking the title to the property--but then sell the asset instead.
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