Positive year-end news: existing home sales rise

Sales of existing homes rose 5.6% in November, according to articles in the Wall Street Journal and NPR online today. “Sales have now risen in three of the past four months,” writes Mark Memmott of NPR. The Wall Street Journal notes that “prices stabilized as fewer houses remained on the market.” In a statement, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, wrote that “”continuing gains in home sales are encouraging, and the positive impact of steady job creation will more than trump some negative impact from a modest rise in mortgage interest rates, which remain historically favorable.”