Reply #6: Sales of Previously Owned Homes Plunge to 1989 Level

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/business/25econ.html?ex=1335153600&en=4c0fc6611fd4d96e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

A rebound in residential real estate remains elusive.

After two months of stronger sales and some tentative suggestions that the housing market was stabilizing, sales last month of previously owned homes took their biggest tumble in nearly two decades.

The National Association of Realtors said yesterday that sales of existing homes, which account for the vast majority of all home sales, fell 8.4 percent in March. That was the steepest monthly decline since January 1989.

The combination of winter weather and newly tightened lending standards for people with weak credit probably sped the drop, economists said.

The fresh data on home sales came as two other economic reports showed further deterioration in home prices in major metropolitan areas and a growing sense of consumer unease.

At first, the news deflated stock prices on Wall Street. Investors quickly shook off their worries and pushed the Dow Jones industrial average high enough to come within 11 points of 13,000 — a high point it has never crossed. But at the close of the trading day stocks finished mixed, with the Dow closing up 34.54 points, to 12,953.94.

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