Pending Home Sales Plunge As Rates Soar In ‘Frozen’ Market

Pending home sales tumbled in August, a bad omen for already depressed existing home sales. Contract signings dove 7.1% last month, the NAR said Thursday. It was the largest decline in nearly a year. Out of more than two-dozen economists who ventured a guess, nobody was close. The most pessimistic estimate saw a 5% drop. Sales fell in every region on both a MoM and YoY basis. Although depressed inventories are obviously a big part of the story, the renewed rise in mortgage rates is now gar