The National Association of Realtors has revised existing home sales 14% lower for the past four years.
The drop represents the loss of more than two million sales from an inflated rate, bringing cumulative sales to 17.7 million for the four-year period.
Together, this paints a far more direr picture of the nation’s housing market than was originally thought, and distorts the pace of the economic recovery in the U.S.
Below, annually adjusted data, from 2007 through 2010:
- 2007 lowered 11% to 5.04 million
- 2008 lowered 16% to 4.11 million
- 2009 lowered 16% to 4.34 million
- 2010 lowered 15% to 4.19 million
November home sales came in at an annualized rate of 4.42 million units, against expectations for 5.05 million. However, against revised lower sales for October, to 4.25 million, existing sales gained 4.0% sequentially, above forecasts.