U.S. home sales inch up

The National Association of Realtors reported that its Pending Home
Sale Index crept up in October, but the forecast for the national
housing is still gloomy. The association predicts home sales will fall
for the third straight year in 2008. The sales index rebounded in the
northeast after dropping the previous month, but the national index
remains down more than 18 percent from a year ago. “Things aren’t
getting much worse, but they’re not getting much better either,” said
Mike Larson, a real estate analyst for independent research firm Weiss
Research.