The National Association of Realtors reported last Monday that the sales of previously owned homes improved a bit last November but the increase was small that it did not create an impact on the weak housing market. The housing market currently characterized by record-breaking rates of foreclosures and stricter credit guidelines which gives the borrowers harder time to get credit and buy a home.

Also reported, was the sales of existing single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses which increased 0.4 percent in November from October, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5 million units. Even with the small increase, the pace of sales was still the second-lowest on record since the time the NAR started tracking in 1999. The lowest was at 4.98 million which was experienced in October.

Home prices continued to drop as economists were calling for sales to either move up slightly or hold steady for November.

The median price of home sold last month was $210,200. There was a 3.3% drop compared to a year ago. This is considered on the annual basis the fifth biggest decline on record. The median price is where half sell for less and half for more.

The inventory of unsold homes in November reached 4.27 million homes. At the current sales pace it would take 10.3 months to exhaust that overhang.

“Inventory is still high and further reduction in prices may be required in some areas to induce buyers back into the market,” said the NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun.

A dip in 30-year mortgage rates in November probably helped give nationwide existing-home sales the small boost last month, the association suggested. Yun thought the small increase could be taken as a sign that the market might be stabilizing. That being said, previous signs of stabilization earlier in the year have been dashed.

A credit crunch which took a turn for the worse in the summer has aggravated housing problems. It has made it more difficult for people to secure financing to buy a home.

The housing market has been suffering through a severe slump following five years of record-breaking activity from 2001 through 2005. Sales turned weak as did home prices. The boom-to-bust situation has increased dangers to the economy as a whole and has been especially hard on some homeowners.

Foreclosures have gone record highs. People are stuck with the balances on their home mortgages that is about the same as the value of their houses. This was caused by the drop in home prices. Other home buyers were victims of promotional activities such as low introductory rates mortgages and then suffered later because of the jump in interest rates, which the homeowners can not afford.

The housing and mortgage meltdowns have raised the odds that the country will fall into a recession. And, the situation has given Democrats and Republicans— including those who want to be the next president — plenty of opportunities to spread blame around.

The economy’s growth is expected to have slowed sharply to a pace of just 1.5 percent or less in the final three months of this year. The big worry is that housing and credit troubles will force individuals to cut back on spending and businesses to cut back on hiring and capital investment, throwing the economy into a tailspin.

To help bolster the economy, the Federal Reserve has sliced a key interest rate three times this year. Many economists are predicting the Fed will lower rates again when it meets in late January. Yun said he preferred to see the Fed make one big rate reduction at that time, rather than make a series of modest, quarter-point cuts.

On Friday, the government reported that new-home sales plunged by 9 percent in November to a pace of 647,000, the lowest in more than 12 years.

The new-home numbers are thought to give a more current account of the health of the housing market because they are recorded when a contract is signed. The existing home figures lag behind because they are based on contract closings, many of which reflect deals negotiated months earlier.