The battered market for new homes ended 2009 with a whimper, according to government data released Wednesday, fueling concern that recent improvements in the housing sector could be short-lived.

In December, new-home sales fell 7.6 percent from the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000, according to the Commerce Department. Sales were down 8.6 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.

Analysts had expected sales to rise, and the disappointing figures capped one of the worst years for home builders in decades. Overall, only 374,000 new homes were sold in 2009, down 22.9 percent from 2008. That is less than half the sales volume of a normal market, 900,000 to 1 million homes, and the lowest total on record, dating to 1963, according to National Association of Home Builders. At the peak of the market, in 2005, nearly 1.3 million new homes were sold.

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