Sales of used homes in the U.S. in January recorded a significant decline for the second consecutive month, reaching the lowest level since last summer, marking a new sign of the wavering recovery in the American real estate market.
The National Association of Realtors announced on Friday that sales fell by 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 5.05 million units, down from an already reduced rate of 5.44 million units in December.
This result, the weakest since June 2009, is far worse than economists’ forecasts, who had expected an increase in the rate to 5.5 million homes sold annually for January.
Sales of new homes in the U.S. also recorded a record decline in January, highlighting the enormous challenges facing the housing construction sector as it attempts to recover from the most severe downturn in decades.
The Department of Commerce reported earlier this week that sales of new homes fell by 11.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 309,000 units, the lowest level recorded in nearly half a century. This significant drop in sales also surprised economists, who had anticipated a five percent increase compared to the sales rate from December 2009. (H)
