Us home sales hit rock bottom
As if it couldn’t get any worse, the
The U.S. Commerce Department reported recently that sales of new single-family homes hit a 12-year low in December 2007, falling well below expectations.
The surprise sales figures for the month were 40.7 percent below sales in December 2006. Sales fell to an annual rate of 604,000 compared with the December 2006, estimate of 1,019,000.
The median sales price for the month was $219,200, while the average price reported was $267,300. For the year, the Commerce Department estimates 774,000 new homes were sold, 26.4 percent below the 1,051,000 new homes sold in 2006.
The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of new homes on the market at the end of December was 494,000, which at the current rate of sales would require 9.6 months to sell, the report said.