US existing home sales slumped 8% in September as a persistent housing slump continued to weigh on the property market and the world's biggest economy, an industry group said today.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a monthly snapshot that existing-home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.04 million units in September from 5.48 million in August.
The decline was worse than expected. Most economists had only expected sales to drop to around 5.25 million.
August's sales pace, meanwhile, was revised down from an original tally of 5.50 million properties.
The depth of the housing depression was underlined by an annual reading which showed sales of homes and apartments across the US have plummeted 19.1% from September 2006.
