The sales of previously owned homes slumped in January for the second month in a row, raising fresh concerns about the housing market's potential for rebound, according to industry statistics released on Friday.
Sales of existing houses, townhouses, condominiums and cooperatives fell 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million in January from December, the National Association of Realtors reported.
The sales are 11.5 percent higher than they were a year earlier, but the monthly trend is "not encouraging," the group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said in a statement. The group has set its sights on spring, when more people are expected to take advantage of a recently renewed tax credit for first-time buyers and some current homeowners.
The sales figures come just days after the federal government reported that sales of newly built homes fell to their lowest level since 1963, when the government first started tracking those numbers. In both cases, many economists had expected a less-drastic drop in sales activity. January's existing home sales were at their weakest point since June. ...
No comments:
Post a Comment