It promises to be the biggest ever Glastonbury, with the toughest measures yet to combat ticket touts. But organisers yesterday revealed that this year’s festival will also go back to basics with a new village green-style field celebrating the spirit of its founding father - and mother. The Park will feature folk music, acoustic bands, poetry readings and surprise DJ sets by some of the festival’s biggest names on the exact spot where the first Eavises in Glastonbury, the aptly named...
U.S. home sales fell in December, ending a weak year
January 31, 2007 on 11:51 pm | In Money |
WASHINGTON: Sales of existing U.S. homes fell in December, closing out a year in which demand for homes slumped by the largest amount in 17 years, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.
The report said that sales of existing homes were down 0.8 percent last month, a bigger decline than had been expected. For the year, sales fell 8.4 percent, the biggest annual decline since 1989, when existing home sales fell 14.8 percent.
The sales figure underscored the sharp contraction that is going on in the once high-flying housing market, which before last year had set sales records for five consecutive years.
Even with the sharp drop in sales last year, the median price of an existing home sold in 2006 managed to rise a slight 1.1 percent.
But that was far below the double-digit gains during the boom years. In 2005, the median home price rose 12.4 percent.
After a five-year boom, housing slowed significantly last year, which has caused ripple effects throughout the economy with rising job layoffs in construction and other housing-related industries.
But economists say they believe the low point for housing has been reached and they are forecasting a slow rebound in 2007.
Because of that optimism, analysts do not believe that the slump in housing will drag the overall economy into a recession.
The 0.8 percent drop in sales in December came after two consecutive months of improving sales, the first back-to-back sales gains since the spring of 2005.
David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said that even with the December setback, he still believed that sales of existing homes had hit bottom and would start to gradually improve.
In other economics news, the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits shot up last week by the largest amount in 16 months, reversing two weeks of big declines.
No Comments yet
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Cramer’s ‘Mad Money’ Recap: Tech, Take a Walk »To see the full “Mad Money” Recap, please click here. Here’s what Jim Cramer had to say about some of the stocks that callers offered up during the “Mad Money Lightning Round” Wednesday evening: “General Motors (GM) is in a holding pattern. It can’t do anything until the numbers start getting better. … had they not lost Jerry York, the Tracinda guy, the stock would have gone to 40. Don’tBuyDon’tBuy.” Hertz Global...