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US Home Sales Fall 12th Month. Prices Near Milestone Drop
Recently awakened animal spirits aren't showing up in existing home sales just yet.
A week after data showed homebuilder sentiment rose to a five-month high in February as falling mortgage rates lured buyers back to a still forbidding market, an updated read on monthly sales came in below consensus.
Existing home sales in January ran at a four million annual rate, short of the 4.1 million economists expected, and the 12th straight monthly decline.
Suffice to say it's going to take a little
New home sales are supported by developers buying down rates, building to lower price points, and selling to rental fleets (permit rate for build-to-rent houses now exceeds build-to-own), and sellers who are forced to move inventory in transactions at the actual market price. For existing home sales, where the sellers lack those tools, markets, and motivations, I think the price distortions are more persistent, and hence the volume distortions.