Spanish housing figures mirror predictions

Spanish house sales fell in November for the third straight month, official data showed on Wednesday, reversing eight months of gains as the country's ailing property sector struggles to recover.

House sales dropped 6.2 percent in November from a year earlier to 32,746 units, after falling 17.7 percent in October, though rose 20.4 percent month-on-month, the National Statistics Institute said.

Spain's housing crisis has turned a decade-long economic boom into a prolonged bust, forcing the country's network of savings banks into a costly consolidation process and leaving millions of construction workers without jobs.

Housing prices, which have not fallen as sharply in Spain as in the United States or Ireland, are expected to continue to fall gradually for several more years, aggravating economic stagnation.