INSTANT VIEW: New home sales down 14.7 pct in December

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes fell 14.7 percent in December, the largest monthly decline since 1994, data showed on Thursday, indicating the housing market's downward spiral was far from reaching a bottom.

KEY POINTS: * The Commerce Department said sales tumbled to a 331,000 annual pace, the lowest since it started keeping records in 1963. * November's sales were sharply revised down to 388,000 annual rate, which was previously reported as 407,000. * Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales would post a 400,000 rate in December. * For 2008, sales totaled 482,000, the lowest since 1982. That represented a 37.9 percent drop on the prior year, also a record fall. * The median sales price in December fell 9.3 percent to $206,500 from a year earlier.

COMMENTS:

BRIAN TAYLOR, HEAD CURRENCY TRADER, M&T BANK, BUFFALO, NEW

YORK:

"It's a bad number but people are expecting these bad numbers for now. The market must clear before we can have a recovery and the plans are in place by the Federal Reserve to lower rates and provide liquidity, which have the market looking a little more forward. The dollar is gaining against the euro and pound, and up against the Canadian dollar. It won't get too far ahead of itself, but the market likes what is going on with the U.S. being pro-active in its measures to ensure we do recover. What the U.S. is doing is far ahead of other countries right now."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. equity indexes extend losses after housing data. BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices pare losses. DOLLAR: U.S. dollar gains versus euro.