Welcome to the Jill on Money Bonus Podcast. This is a quickie gang every week. I go on

CBS this morning with host Gail King Anthony Mason and, and Tony D'Copol, and we're talking about money.

It's our eye on your money.

So this week's eye on money is about housing.

Every Tuesday our I on Money series looks at financial issues Americans face.

This morning we focus on the housing market and why fewer people are buying a home.

Existing home sales in April were down 4.4% from a year ago,

according to the National Association of Realtors.

That is, despite lower mortgage rates.

CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger is here with how homebuyers and sellers can

make the right financial decisions. Jill good morning. This is a buyer.

Absolutely.

So if you're a first-time home buyer, what are the advantages and the challenges here?

Well, I think the big advantage is that now we have a shift and there are some more homes

coming on the market, so we have a little bit more inventory.

That's a big advantage.

Also what we know is mortgage rates, as you said, really low, the lowest of the year, we're down at around 4%

for a 30-year fixed- rate mortgage. The economy is good, jobs are more plentiful. But it's

still tough to buy a home because prices are still up. We see price increases slowing down, but for first-time

buyers we see that median price of over 340,000. That number stuns huge

number right and the number... And they're not even big houses in many markets they're not. And the inventory for homes under 300,000 has dried up considerably. So first time buyers

still having a tough go of it.

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