2010-01-25-existing-home-sales-decline-sharply-in-december.html

--- 
type: post
status: publish
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title: Existing home sales decline sharply in December
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- Datasets
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From <a title="Existing home sales decline" href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/01/existing-home-sales-decline-sharply-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29" target="_blank">CalculatedRisk</a>, I hear that existing home sales have dropped sharply in December. Home sales, in a seasonal-adjusted annual rate (SAAR), were 6.54 million in November and dropped to 5.45 million in December (still up 15% from December last year). On CalculatedRisk, Bill McBride comments that this drop is due in large part because there was probably a rush to home buying in November to take advantage of the first-time home buyers credit. This credit has now been <a title="IRS " href="http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html" target="_blank">extended</a> to April 30, 201. With people rushing to buy homes, I still have to wonder if we aren't pushing people to buy homes they cannot afford.

<img class="aligncenter" title="Existing home decline" src="http://jaradniemi.com/blog/includes/photos/EHSDec2009.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="389" />