NAR revises housing numbers

The National Association of Realtors has just issued a whopper of a correction, saying that instead of a slight increase, New Jersey's housing market actually saw a 30 percent drop in home sales in the first quar­ter compared to last year.

''It happened in the crunching of the numbers," said NAR spokesman Lucien Salvant. "It was just a mistake and we owned up to it."

As it turns out, the actual existing-home sales pace in New Jersey clocked in at 114,100 in the first quarter, which was 30 percent below the 163,000-unit level in first quarter of
2007.

Back on May 13, the NAR said that sales volume in New Jersey rose 4 percent.

"The NAR accepts full responsibility for this error,'' the group said.