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Sales of existing homes plunge to 15-year-low
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Aug 24, 2010 01:22pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Dina Elboghdady and Ariana Eunjung Cha |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Tuesday, August 24, 2010 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | "Sales of previously built single-family homes plunged in July to their lowest level since May 1995 as job fears trumped low mortgage interest rates and relatively affordable home prices.
Sales of existing single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
That's a 27.2 percent drop from June, about twice as much as analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected. That's also a 25.5 percent drop from the same time a year ago. The sales of all these housing types combined was the lowest since the group started tracking the numbers in 1999.
The results, which measure only completed purchase transactions, are well below what experts who track the market projected. They capture the unease about the housing market's recovery and the economy overall as unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist for Mizuho Securities in New York, said the drop was "so outside the statistically norm" that it took even the most pessimistic economists by surprise.
Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates, said the news shows "this is a pretty dicey time" for the U.S. economy.
And Paul Dales, an economist for Capital Economics, called the numbers "eye-wateringly weak."
"It suggests that without the housing tax credit, housing market activity is very, very weak," Dales said. "That would eventually lead to a double dip in house prices." |
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