By Joanne Morrison
Pending sales of previously owned homes fell by 1.5 percent in December and were off a sharp 24 percent from a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said.
On the retail front, a spate of reports from key chain
stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Concern about the economy's weakness, heightened by a
warning on slowing orders at technology heavyweight Cisco
Systems Inc
For last year as a whole, pending home sales -- a gauge of contracts signed for sales that have yet to close -- came in at the lowest level since the real estate industry trade group began tracking the data in 2001.
Moulton said sales will not pick up until prices, which have been falling across the United States, come down further.
The associaton said prices for existing homes were likely to drop by 1.2 percent this year, with prices for new homes tumbling by a bigger 4.3 percent.
Weakness that last year had been pretty much contained in the housing market has begun to spread through the economy more widely.
New applications for unemployment benefits fell by 22,000 last week to 356,000, partially reversing a big spike the week before, but economists said the level, which was higher than expected, still suggested the labor market was weakening.
The softening jobs market has made it increasingly difficult for unemployed workers to find new jobs.
RETAIL SALES SLACK
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, reported a 0.5 percent rise in January same-store sales, short of the 2 percent rise analysts expected. Target, the No. 2 U.S. retailer, posted a 1.1 percent drop in same-store sales.
"Given the difficult economic backdrop retailers and consumers are facing, expectations have still been pared to lower levels despite starting out at very modest initial projections," said Ken Perkins, president of research firm Retail Metrics.
