Briefs: February home sales decline was unexpected

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Sales of new U.S. homes fell sharply for a second consecutive month in February, a weaker-than-expected performance that frustrated hopes for a rebound in the housing market.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that sales of new single-family homes fell by 3.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 848,000, the slowest sales pace in nearly seven years. All regions of the country except the West experienced weakness last month.

The February decline followed an even larger 15.8 percent drop in sales in January, the largest one-month plunge in 13 years. The back-to-back declines provided evidence that the housing market is continuing to struggle with lagging demand and a glut of unsold homes.

The weakness in sales pushed the median price of a new home down to $250,000 in February, a drop of 0.3 percent from a year ago. It marked the second straight month that the median price fell compared with the same period a year ago. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

Sales declined 20 percent in the Midwest, in part becuase of winter storms.

Analysts had expected new home sales to increase in February as well, based on a view that January’s steep plunge had overstated the weakness in housing.

Dealer challenges search in Hummer fraud caseThe owners of a Missouri car brokerage say state patrol investigators misled a judge to get a search warrant approved as part of an investigation of more than 200 Hummers sold with phony titles by an Omaha dealer.

So lawyers for Patrice and Ed Robertson — whose business in Chillicothe, Mo., was searched earlier this month — filed a motion late Friday asking a Livingston County judge to order the return of their records and computers.

The Robertsons’ lawyers contend that investigators misrepresented what three employees of the Huber Cadillac, Hummer and Saab dealership in west Omaha told investigators for the Nebraska State Patrol last fall. Without those inaccurate statements, the Robertsons’ lawyers argue, there wouldn’t be enough evidence for a search warrant.

“The March 7 search was a fishing expedition with a huge but closely woven net,” attorneys Jim Wyrsch of Kansas City, Mo., and David Macoubrie of Chillicothe said in the motion.

Nebraska and Missouri state troopers and the FBI are working together on the case because the vehicles and money crossed state lines, and most of the Hummers wound up in other countries.

A decision on what, if any, charges to file remains about a month away, but falsifying vehicle titles is a felony in Nebraska and investigators have said General Motors paid more than $500,000 in unearned incentives for the sales. Sales for export and sales outside the Huber dealership’s territory should not have been eligible for GM incentives.

— From news wires