Dissecting the drooping home sales numbers

Existing and new home sales numbers for May came out this week, and they were nothing to get excited about. Economists and experts were blown away by figures announced by the Commerce Department on Tuesday. While a drop in sales was expected, no one expected the 32.7 percent nose-dive from the previous month’s sales.

“A lot of this is due to the tax buyer credit offered by the government,” says Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC. “It poached home sales.”

To learn more about why this drop happened, and what it means for the overall state of the economy, Charlie Herman once again joins the program.