Picture du Jour: A grim U.S. housing market

By Prieur du Plessis, on August 25th, 2010 posted in: Economy, Housing One comment so far

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Yesterday’s data report showed sales of existing homes in the U.S. have fallen even more sharply than anticipated, indicating that the fragile recovery in housing is fading fast after the temporary lift provided by the first-time homebuyer tax-credit program in March–April 2010 and September–November 2009.

Source: Clusterstock – Business Insider, August 24, 2010.

The salient features of the report are:

•  Home sales declined to 3.83 million annualized units in July, an unprecedented low in the data’s nearly 10-year history.
•  Sales declined by 27.2% m/m.
•  Months of supply surged to a new high of 12.5.
•  The median house price is up by a slight 0.7% from one year ago.

Although self-sustained home sales are not here yet, it is worth noting, according to Dismal Scientist, that the three-month moving average of home sales – taking out the impact of the tax credit – is 5.0 million units, about on par with sales at the beginning of this year.

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