Sales of new homes across the country fell yet again last month despite analysts’ expectations. February sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 848,000, down 3.9 percent from January and down 18.3 percent from the same month the year before, according to the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development.The federal survey is the latest piece of bad news for the housing market. But while national home builders report sagging earnings and inventories of unsold homes continue to rise, some of the local real estate agents and builders I’ve talked to remain upbeat — well, relatively.Agents say they’re receiving more and more calls from prospective buyers, though some are too skittish yet to take the plunge. And at least one smaller builder I’ve talked to reported strong sales last month. Many analysts and builders also say they expect the market to inch upward again toward the end of the year or early 2008, once the inventory of speculative homes is sold off. Whether they’re right is anybody’s guess. In the meantime, some developers are postponing new projects and most of them are working feverishly to sell thousands of speculative homes still on the market.

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