Home sales tumble as tax credit lift wanes

Sales of previously owned homes suffered a record drop last month as the boost from a popular tax credit waned, raising doubts the housing market recovery can be sustained without government support.

The National Association of Realtors said on Monday that existing home sales fell 16.7 percent in December to an annual rate of 5.45 million units. It was the sharpest decline on records dating to 1968 and the slowest sales pace since August.

Analysts, who had expected a 5.90 million unit pace, said the slump month underscored the degree to which the housing market recovery was reliant on government aid.

Source: Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza