The latest pending home sales figures were just released, and they showed a 1.2% drop between July and August. That was the second monthly decline in a row and it left the seasonally adjusted index at 88.6, the lowest since April. Sales fell 2.4% in the West, 3.7% in the Midwest, and 5.8% in the Northeast. Sales rose 2.6% in the South.
We already knew the new home market slipped to a multi-month low in August. Now, it appears we’re seeing the same deterioration in the “used” home arena. While mortgage rates remain historically low, buyers simply lack the confidence to step up to the plate and buy homes. They’re worried about losing their jobs, and rightfully so. As a result, housing continues to act like an anchor around the neck of the economy, preventing a meaningful recovery.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Well I think things are going quite well, really. We are watching a second world currency, the Euro, take its correct place. And the correct place is to be just a currency, nothing more. It is a large, in total amount, ‘currency’ used solely for transactions. Nothing more. The total is conjured up by general agreement by the major owners. It is not ‘borrowed’ into use by debt by a private bank like the Federal Reserve Note. With luck, we could also have a third, Chinese currency, in place if it could be separated from Chinese market fiddling. These currencies will work as non political workhorses to keep the markets flowing without interference. The real measurement comes from the bond market. Overspend your worth for any length of time and the country, state, province, city, hamlet will pay. And more important, the general public, administrations or politicians that instigated abuse will pay directly. There will be some currency fiddling, but no more than that which already happens on a daily basis to moderate currency changes. The current mess is nothing more than a very graphic lesson that ‘debt has a price’.