home sales

It's not good news for home prices in New Jersey through most of 2012. Economists predict a downward trend, mostly due to foreclosures.

Home sales rose in January to the highest pace in nearly two years, flashing signs of health ahead of the spring-buying season.

Fewer people bought new homes in December. The decline made 2011 the worst year for new -homes sales on records dating back nearly half a century.

The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose last month. But the National Association of Realtors says it overstated about 3.5 million sales during and after the Great Recession, showing the housing market remains much weaker than previously thought.

Americans bought slightly more new homes in October, a hopeful sign for the troubled housing market. But the median sales price fell to its lowest level of the year, and the overall sales pace is trailing last year's -- the worst in half a century.

For the third quarter of 2011, existing home sales in New Jersey outperformed sales in the northeast.