November sales of existing homes in the United States increased, but remain at a level that suggests the housing slump will be a drag on economic growth, Bloomberg reported.

Purchases rose 0.4 percent to an annual rate of 5 million from a 4.98 million pace in October, the National Association of Realtors said today. The median home price fell 3.3 percent to $210,200 and sales decreased 20 percent from November 2006.

The improvement may be short-lived as higher mortgage costs and stricter lending rules further depress home sales, economists said. Falling home prices and near-record inventories give would-be buyers more reason to sit on the sidelines to await better bargains, pointing to weak sales into 2008.

Economists forecast home resales to hold at 4.97 million, unchanged from the prior month’s initially reported figure, according to the median forecast of 58 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. October’s sales pace was the lowest since records began in 1999.

The number of homes for sale at the end of November fell 3.6 percent to 4.27 million. At the current sales pace, that represented 10.3 months’ supply compared with 10.7 months in October.

Resales of single-family homes rose 0.7 percent to an annual rate of 4.4 million. Sales of condominium units and co-ops fell 1.6 percent to a 600,000 rate, the lowest since November 2001. The increase in purchases was led by a 10 percent rebound in the West. Sales declined 3.3 percent in the Northeast and 2 percent in the South. Sales were little changed in the Midwest.