The eighth straight downwardly revised forecast from the National Association of Realtors calls for existing U.S. home sales to be 10.8 percent below last year. Sales of New Homes meanwhile, are expected to finish 2007, at the lowest level in a decade. The trade groups outlook for 2007 homes sales has grown more pessimistic through the year as foreclosures soared, credit market troubles developed and sales fell. In February 2007, the same group forecast an annual decline in existing home sales of only 0.6%. In its October 2007 report, The National Association of Realtors predicts 5.78 million existing homes will be sold in 2007, down from 6.48 million homes in 2006. This years sales would be the lowest since 2002, when sales hit 5.63 million homes. The housing market has been battered by the steepest downturn in 16 years, as covered by the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index that covers housing prices in major U.S. Cities. Problems were exacerbated in August by turmoil in credit markets, reflecting new worries about rising mortgage defaults. The Housing bubble has burst and it wil be a year or more before any improvement is expected in home sales new and existing.
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