Home Sales Drop Significantly, Again

Existing-home sales numbers were released today. The numbers plunged in December, to much "lower than expected". However, this was more than expected, as reported here previously. The home tax credit is what was causing the increases in the previous three months.

The National Association of Realtors said that home resales dropped16.7% to a 5.45M annual rate from 6.54M in November. The news clearly affected the stock market, wcich was rebounding from severely oversold short term conditions.





Inventories dropped, and prices rose year over year for the first time in more than two years.

For all of 2009, there were 5.16M home sales, up 4.9% from 4.91M in 2008, the first annual sales gain since 2005.