The housing industry, caught in a maelstrom of sinking demand, rising foreclosures and bulging inventories, is in its worst slump in decades, a growing body of economic evidence shows.

Sales of new homes fell last year by 26 percent, the steepest drop since records began in 1963, the Commerce Department said.

Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of previously owned single-family homes, a large portion of the overall housing market, dropped the most on an annual basis in 25 years. And the median price of those homes fell for the first time in at least four decades.

Some economists predict the market may start to recover in the summer. Others are less optimistic. “There is no sign of a bottom in any of these data,” wrote Ian C. Shepherdson, a London-based economist at High Frequency Economics. Last month alone, sales of new homes tumbled 4.7 percent, to a 604,000 annual rate, the smallest monthly sales figure since February 1995.