Over 2 Million Empty Homes

A record 2.18 million homes sat vacant and available for sale in the fourth quarter, according to the report, up from 2.07 million in the third quarter and the 2.1 million a year earlier. The fourth-quarter reading on vacant homes for sale matched the previous record set in the first three months of 2007.

The glut of vacant homes and the falling rates of ownership are signs of the evaporation of demand for home sales, which in turn has hammered housing values, particularly in neighborhoods with multiple homes sitting empty.

 
Flood of bad news: The report comes the same day that RealtyTrac, an online seller of foreclosure properties, reported that total foreclosure filings grew 75% in 2007 and S&P Case/Shiller, which tracks home values in the nation's largest markets, posted the biggest price decline on record for its November reading.

The weak December sales left full-year new home sales at 774,000, down 26 percent from the 1.05 million sales in 2006. That was the biggest drop since the government started tracking new home sales in 1963, surpassing the 23 percent decline posted in 1980.

Glut of home driving down prices The median price of a new home sold in December was $219,200, down 10.4 percent from $244,700 a year earlier. It was the sharpest year-over-year drop in monthly median home prices since 1970.