no question the snowy cold is not the best environment for house-hunting. you can always add that new home sales numbers are not as revealing as existing home sales. because those are the ones that really count. they make up three-quarters of all sales. guess what? there, too, sales were bad. friday we found out sales of previously owned homes surprised forecasters, too. down more than 7%, especially since january of last year saw the sales of existing homes were way up. more than 11%. so what is with the shaky ground for real estate? well, sales started to drop late last year when perspective buyers thought it was too late to use a tax credit for first-time buyers. that has since been extended through the end of april. here with many things in the economy, much of thism cos down to unemployment, consumer confidence is down and you have to be pretty confident these days to buy a house, even with foreclosures