The sales of certain large-ticket items, such as new homes or new cars, are often reported on in the media as indicators of the strength of a consumer-based economy. So this probably is not a good sign:

New-home sales in May fell from April to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 300,000, the government said Wednesday. That was the slowest sales pace on records dating back to 1963. And it’s the largest monthly drop on record. Sales have now sunk 78 percent from their peak in July 2005.

The tax credits, $8,000 for a first-time homeowner or $6,500 for a current homeowner, expired April 30.

On the whole, we have come a long way from the housing-sale crazed days of the first half of the 2000s.