Americans are on track to buy fewer new homes than in any year since
the government began keeping data almost a half-century ago. Sales
are now about half the pace of 1963 when 560,000 were sold, even
though there are 120 million more people in the U.S. now.
Last year 323,000 new homes were sold � the worst year on record and
the fifth straight year of declines. A healthy pace for today�s
population of 310 million, according to economists, is about 700,000
a year.
