<div><p>Sales of US existing homes fell more than expected in December, by nearly 17 percent, following a three-month surge driven by a government tax credit, an industry organization said Monday.</p><p>The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said sales fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units, from 6.54 million in November.</p><p>The sharp decline was worse than average analyst forecast of 5.9 million units and was the steepest monthly drop since NAR began tracking the data series in 1999.</p><p>The industry group said the decline had been expected after sales surged from September through November as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of federal tax credits originally due to expire on November 30.</p><p>Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed an extension of the first-time tax credit that expands it to include other home purchases made prior to April 30.</p><p>The December number was 15.0 percent above the year-ago level of 4.74 million units.</p><p>"It?s significant that home sales remain above year-ago levels, but the market is going through a period of swings driven by the tax credit," said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.</p><p>"We?ll likely have another surge in the spring as home buyers take advantage of the extended and expanded tax credit. By early summer the overall market should benefit from more balanced inventory, and sales are on track to rise again in 2010."</p><p>First-time home buyers represented 43 percent of the market in December, compared with 51 percent the prior month.</p><p>The industry group noted that sales had risen every month since April, apart from a slight dip in August, and had often topped expectations.</p><p>For all of 2009, sales of existing homes totaled 5.156 million, a gain of 4.9 pecent from 2008.</p><p>It was the first annual sales gain since 2005, NAR said.</p><p>The national median existing home sales price was 178,300 dollars in December, an increase of 1.5 percent from a year earlier. It was the first year-over-year gain since August 2007.</p><p>Yun highlighted that elevated unemployment poses a key challenge to recovery in the troubled US housing sector, where defaults on subprime mortgages more than two years ago triggered the global financial crisis.</p><p>"The job market remains a concern and could dampen the housing recovery -- job creation is key to a continued recovery in the second half of the year," the NAR economist said.</p><p>The US unemployment rate held steady at 10.0 percent in December while the economy shed 85,000 jobs, according to official data.</p><p>More than seven million Americans lost their jobs in the recession that officially began in December 2007 and nearly 25 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed because they could not find full-time work, or have given up looking for work, the data showed.</p><p>Total inventory of existing homes for sale at the end of December fell 6.6 percent to 3.29 million, representing a 7.2-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 6.5-month supply in November.</p><p>On an annual basis, inventory at the end of December was 11.1 percent below the December 2008 level and was at the lowest level since March 2006. The reading was 28.2 percent below the record of 4.58 million in July 2008, NAR said.</p><p>Median prices continued to fall, weighed down by sales of distressed homes, which accounted for 36 percent of total sales last year, it said.</p><p>For all of 2009, the median price was 173,500 dollars, down 12.4 percent from 198,100 dollars in 2008.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67757093&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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