The US housing market closed the books on a dismal year on Thursday, recording a 2.2 per cent drop in the pace of existing home sales in December to an annual rate of 4.89m units, which was slower than expected.
The consensus on Wall Street was that the National Association of Realtors' figures would show a drop to about 4.95m units.
The disappointing data for December caps a year in which existing home sales overall fell 12.8 per cent and the national median home price fell by 1.4 per cent to $218,900, according to the NAR.
The downturn in the US housing market has been at the heart of the credit crisis that has shaken global markets and worsened the outlook for US economy.
Earlier in the day, however, the labour department issued a more upbeat set of figures on the US economy, showing that the number of new jobless claims fell 1,000 to 301,000 in the week ending January 19. The downward move marked a surprise compared to analysts' expectations of a small rise. It was the fourth weekly decline in new jobless claims.
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