Sam Zell is living in a fantasy world if he thinks this market will bounce back in the spring. Spring of 2011, maybe, but not a chance in spring of 2009. His strange predictions make sense only in the world of never-never land that is also known as right wing economics. Unfortunately, this is the same kind that we're going to see more of in the next four years since Obama hasn't figured out yet that his team is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Sales of new and existing homes plummeted in November, as buyers stayed out of the market amid the growing financial crisis and deepening recession, according to figures releases Tuesday.
Sales of existing homes fell 8.6 percent, far more than expected, to an annual rate of 4.49 million in November, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.91 million in October. The median sales price fell 13.2 percent — the largest amount on record — to $181,300, from $208,000 a year ago.
That was the lowest price since February 2004 and the biggest year-over-year drop on records going back to 1968. The drop in home prices was probably the largest since the Great Depression, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun told reporters.
Meanwhile sales of newly built single-family homes slowed to the weakest levels since 1991, according to the Commerce Department.
