Friday, June 25, 2010
The housing market outdid even pessimists’ worst predictions for May, when only 300,000 homes were sold nationwide. The drop was attributed to the federal tax credit for home buyers, which had helped boost sales, expiring in April. Without it, potential buyers dropped out of the market, causing a 32.7% plunge in home sales from April to May.
The 300,000 total was the lowest seasonally adjusted monthly figure on record since the U.S. Census Bureau first began tracking home sales in 1963. The previous low mark, 338,000, came in September 1981, towards the beginning of the severe recession of the early 1980s.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
New Home Sales Plunge to Record Low (by Laurent Belsie, Christian Science Monitor)
U.S. New Home Sales Drop 33% in May (by David Streitfeld, New York Times)
New Residential Sales in May 2010 (U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Housing and Urban Development)
Houses Sold by Region (U.S. Census Bureau) (pdf)
Comments