Existing home sales fall while housing starts surge — what’s up with that?

Sales of existing houses unexpectedly fell in April, providing the latest bit of confusing data about the health of the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors reports sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops dropped 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million. The good news is that’s the second month in a row that the sales pace topped 5 million. Plus it’s 6 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Economists, however, expected… …read more