Nobody In America Wants to Buy Old Houses
Anyone who needed convincing that the economy is on the rails should’ve tried selling a house last month. In July, sales of gently-used single-family homes in the U.S. plummeted to a 15-year low, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales came in at an annualized rate of 3.8 million. The slowdown was worse than Wall Street had expected; per Briefing.com, analysts were expecting 4.7 million houses to sell. The NAR also reported that its June sales figure was worse than initially thought, revising that number downward to 5.3 million from 5.4 million.
The number of houses still sitting on the shelf waiting for buyers rose 2.5% to 4 million. At the current rate, it would take 12 and a half years to get rid of the housing glut.
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