There have been 5 months of decline in existing home sales. February broke the trend though according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing home sales increased 5.2 percent.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said mild weather appears to be responsible for some of the gain. “Weather conditions across much of the country were unseasonably mild in January and likely were a factor in higher levels of buyer activity, which boosted sales that closed in February,” he said.

“Higher interest rates had been tapping the breaks, notably in higher-cost housing markets since mortgage interest rates trended up last fall, but we’re seeing signs of stabilization in the market now with the sales rebound. Home sales should level-out in the months ahead.”

NAR President Thomas M. Stevens from Vienna, Va., said comparisons with market performance over the last five years distort what people should expect from housing as an investment. “Housing is simply returning to a normal market, where annual home prices will rise a little faster than the overall rate of inflation,” said Stevens, senior vice president of NRT Inc. “However, in looking at total returns, you need to consider that the typical buyer is making only a modest downpayment but enjoys a return on the full value of the home, which is many times the actual cash investment. In other words, normal is pretty good for the typical homeowner, and that’s what we expect for the foreseeable future.”

Stevens noted that price appreciation has yet to cool significantly. “We’re still seeing double-digit annual price gains, but we should get down to single-digit appreciation fairly soon,” he said.