US existing home sales dropped 1.2 percent and prices posted a record slump in October as the woes of the housing sector persisted, industry figures showed Wednesday.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said sales of existing single-family homes and apartments fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.97 million units in October from a downwardly revised 5.03-million unit pace in September.
The decline was worse than economists' consensus forecast of a drop to 5.00 million units, and followed an 8.0 percent plunge in home sales in September.
On a 12-month basis, sales in October were down 20.7 percent from the pace of a year ago.
The national median home price fell to 207,800 dollars, down 5.1 percent from October 2006 and the largest drop recorded by the NAR.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the weak performance reflected past credit tightening, but that the mortgage situation has since improved.
"As noted last month, temporary mortgage problems were peaking back in August when many of the sales closed in October were being negotiated. We continue to see the biggest impact in high-cost markets that rely on jumbo loans," he said, referring to homes priced 417,000 dollars and up.
"Mortgage availability has improved as evidenced by much lower mortgage interest rates and a sharp jump in FHA (Federal Housing Administration) endorsements for home purchases," Yun said.
The glut of existing homes for sale rose 1.9 percent in October to 4.45 million units, which represents a 10.8-month supply at the current sales pace, the highest monthly supply on record since the group started tracking this data in 1999.
The September inventory supply was downwardly revised to a 10.4-month supply.
Single-family homes sales were unchanged in October, holding an annual rate of 4.37 million units, while the median price was 205,700 dollars, down 6.3 percent from October 2006.
Apartment sales fell 9.1 percent in October to a pace of 600,000 units, down 20.2 percent from a year earlier. The median apartment price was 223,500 dollars, up 4.9 percent on a 12-month basis.
NAR said sales were stable in the northeast and south, but fell 1.7 percent in the Midwest and 4.4 percent in the west.
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