国际英语新闻：U.S. new home sales down 33% in May

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Xinhua) -- New home sales in the United States plunged 33 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The new home sales, the lowest level on record, was much worse than the 410,000 units that analysts had expected. The sharp decline indicated that buyers left the market as the government's tax credits of up to 8,000 dollars expired in April.

The median price of a new home, a typical market price where half of new homes are sold for more and half sold for less, fell to 200,900 dollars in May, down 9.6 percent from a year earlier.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home sales in the U.S. declined by 2.2 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.66 million units.

The collapse of the housing bubble triggered the global financial crisis that plunged the U.S. economy into recession in December 2007.

Many economists believe the U.S. housing market remains in trouble.