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| Nine-year low for US home sales | |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| US home sales declined in January to a nine-year low, while prices also fell and inventories rose, according to the National Association of Realtors. | |
| Sales of existing homes dropped 0.4% year on year to an annual rate of 4.89 million units last month, | |
| The fall was better than predictions of 4.8 million, but showed the continued weakness in the US housing market. | |
| Average house prices fell 4.6% to $201,100 (£106,691) in January compared to the same month one year ago. | |
| Tighter lending conditions have put people off moving, analysts say and there have been signs that the housing slump is hurting economic growth. | |
| But Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the realtors association, said he believed the worst of the housing slump may have passed, with a rebound expected to start toward the end of this year. | |
| "Sub-prime loans and other risky mortgage products have virtually disappeared from the marketplace, and over the past five months, this has been reflected in soft but fairly stable home sales," he said | |
| House builders have been particularly heavily affected by the slump, with many slashing the prices of new homes they have built to avoid financial difficulties. |