Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. home sales will tumble to a five-year low this year as a widening credit crunch reduces the number of buyers who can get mortgages, the National Association of Realtors said today.
Sales of previously owned homes probably will fall 6.8 percent to 6.04 million in 2007, the lowest since 5.63 million in 2002, the real estate trade group said today in its monthly forecast, lowering its outlook for the eighth time this year. New-home sales, which account for about 15 percent of the housing market, probably will fall 19 percent to 852,000, a 10- year low, the group said.
``Mortgage disruptions will hold back sales over the short term,'' Lawrence Yun, an economist for the association, said in the report.
These are their estimates. Government data out in 2 weeks.