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11 In A Row
11 straight months.
That's a long time when you're talking about deleterious trends, and in this case the trend in question is existing home sales.
Sales of previously-owned residences dropped again in December, the last of this week's notable data out of the world's largest economy showed.
Although the annual rate, at 4.02 million, was ahead of estimates, it wasn't enough to snap the streak of monthly declines. The range of estimates, from more than five-dozen economists, was 3.79 million to
Until affordability changes, these trends won’t recover. A middling decrease in mortgage rates won’t materially affect affordability. Add that to consumer balance sheets materially weakening and there won’t be much of a reprieve. I do though expect volume based metrics to level off for a bit (9 months or so). However pricing will likely continue to decline even if at a slower pace. I live in the Boston metro. Our home prices went negative as of the December data. I expect the national average to be negative by March at the latest.