Existing home sales fall for third straight month

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. existing home sales plunged 9.7% in May. It was the third straight monthly decline and further evidence of the harm the virus pandemic has done to the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that the May decline pushed sales down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million, the slowest pace since a home buyers tax credit expired in October 2010. Sales were down in all parts of the country with the biggest decline coming in the Northeast.