Housing Market Threatens U.S. Recovery as Sales Slide

The U.S. real estate market threatens to undercut the Obama administration’s stimulus-driven economic recovery as home sales resume their record slide following the end of the federal homebuyer tax credit.

New-home sales tumbled 33 percent last month to a record low annual pace of 300,000, the Commerce Department said in a report today. Sales of previously owned homes unexpectedly fell 2.2 percent in May, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday, even as mortgage rates remained near an all-time low.