Existing home sales hit 15 year low

Sales of existing homes plunged last month to the lowest level in 15 years, dashing hopes that a rebound in housing would jolt the economy out of its post-recession malaise. The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that July's sales dropped 27.2 percent, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million–the biggest monthly decline on record dating to 1968 and worse than what most analysts had feared. "The decline wasn't unexpected, but perhaps the amount of the decline was," Paul Bishop, NAR's vice president for research, told NPR. Celia Chen of Moody's Economy.com, who specializes in housing economics, called the latest data "unprecedented."