Home Sales Hit Record Low Despite Dropping Prices

Sales of existing properties down 20.7% over last year
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 28, 2007 12:41 PM CST
Home Sales Hit Record Low Despite Dropping Prices
A realty signs, one noting "new price," are seen Tuesday. Nov. 27, 2007, in Marysville, Pa. U.S. home prices fell 4.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the sharpest drop since Standard & Poor's began its nationwide housing index in 1987 and another sign that the housing slump is far...   (Associated Press)

Existing-home sales fell for the eighth consecutive month in October, hitting record lows in a survey of realtors. Resales dropped to an annual rate of 4.97 million, down 1.2% from September, despite a huge 5.1% drop in median price. “Price declines are part of the healing process,” an economist told CNN, “but we have a lot of healing to do.”

Realtors estimate 4.5 million homes are currently for sale—a supply that would take nearly 11 months to exhaust and is the largest in 22 years. “We expect inventory problems in the existing home market to take a few years to work through,” one economist said. October’s numbers reflect sales negotiated in August, when mortgage problems were peaking. (More housing sales stories.)

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