US home sales plunged to lowest level since 2010

US existing home sales plunged to a 12-year low in December, but declining mortgage rates raised cautious hope that the embattled housing market could be close to finding a floor.

Existing home sales fell 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units last month, the lowest level since November 2010, the National Association of Realtors said on Friday (Dec 20). That marked the 11th straight monthly decline in sales, the longest such stretch since 1999.

Sales dropped in the Northeast, South and Midwest. They were unchanged in the West. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home sales falling to a rate of 3.96 million units.

Home resales, which account for a big chunk of US housing sales, tumbled 34 percent on a year-on-year basis in December. They fell 17.8 percent to 5.03 million units in 2022, the lowest annual total since 2014 and the sharpest annual decline since 2008.