Housing Sales

Sales of new single-family homes plummeted a record 26% last year and builders slashed prices by the most since 1970 in a struggle to cope with the housing bust, a U.S. government report showed Monday. The Commerce Department report offered little hope for a turnaround any time soon as a record one-month drop in the median home price for December failed to stoke demand and the number of months needed to clear the inventory of unsold homes rose. Sales in December fell 4.

The U.S. housing market has still not reached bottom, the number of workers drawing jobless benefits has hit a 2 1/4 -year high and consumers are tightening their purse strings, reports showed Thursday, suggesting that the economy may have screeched to a halt. Pending sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5% in December and were off a sharp 24% from a year earlier, the National Assn. of Realtors said.

Sales of existing homes fell in 45 states during the October-December quarter, with metropolitan areas showing growing weakness, a real estate trade group said Thursday. The fourth-quarter data from the National Assn. of Realtors underscore the breadth of the housing market's slump. South Dakota was the lone state to show an increase. Existing-home sales there rose 8.9% from the same quarter a year ago. Sales were unchanged in North Dakota.

U.S. sales of existing homes fell for a sixth straight month in January, while prices tumbled 4.6% amid swelling inventories, according to a report Monday that offered no end in sight for the housing slump. The pace of existing-home sales fell 0.4% in January to an annual rate of 4.89 million units, the National Assn. of Realtors said in its report. Economists polled by Reuters had expected home resales to fall to a 4.80-million-unit pace from the 4.

The housing market's wipeout means there are deals to be found, even at the beach. ? Grant Niman landed his dream home in Hermosa Beach after a careful six-month search. The 46-year-old certified public accountant is in escrow on a three-story, four-bedroom home within four blocks of the sand. The sale price came in just under $1.4 million. Comparable houses near Niman's pick were selling for as much as $200,000 higher in December. ? "It was an incredibly good deal.

Contracts to buy previously owned homes fell in March, and businesses, faced with a slump in demand, slashed worker hours in the first quarter to increase productivity and safeguard profits, data Wednesday showed. The National Assn. of Realtors index, based on contracts signed in March, fell 1% to 83.0, the lowest since the index began in 2001, and was 20.1% lower than a year ago.

Their hips and knees feel fine at the moment, but Jomari and Russell Anderson think about them constantly as they shop for a new house in Orange County. The Aliso Viejo couple want their next home to be a keeper, a place they hope to maintain well into their 70s. So they're considering only floor plans with downstairs master bedroom suites. "If you get a downstairs master now, you don't have to redesign your house in the future. I don't plan on moving anymore," said Russell, 50.

The market may be down, but sales of bank-owned properties are picking up, with multiple offers being made in many cases as lenders drop their prices to move foreclosed homes off the books. REO homes (bank shorthand for "real estate owned") that are in good condition and listed at $300,000 or less are drawing as many as 15 to 20 bids from home buyers and investors looking for bargains, area real estate agents report.

Back when the real estate market was hot, sellers barely had to make their beds and do the dishes for their houses to attract buyers. Any extra effort often elicited multiple offers for over the asking price. In today's cool market, however, those same extras can mean the difference between getting one offer or none at all, says Lisa LaPorta, cohost of HGTV's "Designed to Sell." Sellers frustrated with the stagnant market should consider turning their anxiety into action.

The top two floors of a Century City residential tower still under construction have been sold for a record $47 million to Candy Spelling, the widow of TV mogul Aaron Spelling. A $47-million price tag may seem like an enormous sum, but this is all about downshifting in the fast lane.