WASHINGTON (AP) - An industry group's report due Monday is expected to show
that existing home sales fell slightly in February from the previous month --
building the case that the steepest housing slump in a quarter century is only
getting worse.
The National Association of Realtors' report on sales of existing homes in
the U.S. for February is scheduled for release at 10 a.m. EDT.
Sales are expected to drop 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of 4.85 million units, down from 4.89 million in January, according to the
consensus forecast of Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR. The
results in January were the slowest sales pace on records going back to 1999 and
a drop of 0.4 percent from a month earlier.
Sales of existing homes fell by nearly 13 percent in 2007, the biggest
decline in 25 years, and are down 20 percent from their all-time high set in
2005.
The nation's two-year housing downturn has been acerbated by a severe credit
crunch. Having lost billions on bad mortgages, financial institutions are
holding onto cash, fearful of exposure to risk.
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