Realtors say sales of existing homes drop for sixth consecutive month, to lowest level in 5 years; separate report shows steepest price drop in 16 years.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com
September 25 2007: 11:20 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Housing markets continued to slump across the nation in August as the number of existing homes sold dropped for the sixth straight month, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors.
Sales fell 4.3 percent from July to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.50 million. Sales have fallen 12.8 percent since last August’s pace of 6.31 million homes.
Lawrence Yun, senior economist for NAR, blamed the current credit crunch. “The unusual disruptions in the mortgage market, including a significant rise in jumbo loan rates, resulted in a fairly high number of postponed or cancelled sales, with many buyers having to search for other financing when loan commitments fell through,” he said in a statement.
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http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/real_estate/low_existing_home_sales/?postversion=2007092511
