Housing boom goes bust in finance crisis

The decade began sweetly as sales of single-family homes and condominium set records. But it ended on sour note.

“We experienced a dramatic housing boom from 1999 through 2005,” said Harold Petersen, an economics professor at Boston College. “But the housing debacle has driven sales down to their lowest levels in years.”

While 2009 is expected to close with sales of nearly 59,000 single-family homes and condos, that number is 34 percent below the peak of 1999 when housing purchases topped 90,000, according to the Warren Group, the real estate market tracker.