Following Case-Shiller’s report that home price gains are the weakest in four years, Pulte Homes’ CEO admission that 2019 will be a “challenging year,” and existing home sales carnage, Pending Home Sales were expected to very modestly rebound in December.
But it didn’t!
Pending home sales dropped 2.2% MoM (versus a 0.5% expected rise) to the lowest since 2014…
This is the 12th month in a row of annual sales declines…and the biggest annual drop in 5 years…
Yet another sign the housing market is struggling amid elevated property prices and borrowing costs – but there’s always hope…
“The stock market correction hurt consumer confidence, record high home prices cut into affordability and mortgage rates were higher in October and November for consumers signing contracts in December,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.
But with mortgage rates declining recently and the Fed less likely to raise borrowing costs, “the forecast for home transactions has greatly improved.”
Finally, the Realtors group forecasts a decline in annual home sales to 5.25 million this year from 5.34 million in 2018, which would mark the first back-to-back drops since the last recession.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2MGy1U1 Tyler Durden