Home resales fall to 7-month low in June
A short sale sign hangs outside a home for sale in Las Vegas in 2010. Credit: Bloomberg File, 2010
Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in June to a seven-month low as the industry struggled to overcome rising unemployment and foreclosures.
Purchases dropped 0.8 percent from May to a 4.77 million pace, data from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday in Washington. The median projection in a Bloomberg News survey called for a gain to 4.9 million. Inventories increased, more contracts were canceled and 30 percent of transactions were of distressed dwellings, the figures showed.
Stricter lending rules, unemployment above 9 percent and delays in processing foreclosures mean it may take years to reduce the number of distressed properties on the market even as all-cash purchases have recently helped buoy demand.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said the decline in confidence and lack of job growth that are impeding consumer spending are also keeping real estate "depressed."
"The market continues bumping along the bottom, with every move ahead matched by a disappointing setback," said Richard DeKaser, an economist at Parthenon Group in Boston. "For . . . a meaningful rebound in sales, we'll probably have to wait until 2012." -- Bloomberg News
