Pending Home Sales Plunge In September To Lowest Since Jan 2015

Following September’s modest bounce in existing home sales, and explosion in new home sales (biggest jump in 25 years), today’s pending home sales was a huge disappointment, blowing the bounce back narrative.

Pending Home Sales tumbled 5.4% YoY…

To its lowest since Jan 2015…

Take your pick – is the housing ‘recovery’ good, bad, or ugly…

The South saw only a modest decline suggesting this is not all due to the storm.

“While most of the country, except for the South, did see minor gains in contract signings last month, activity is falling further behind last year’s pace because new listings aren’t keeping up with what’s being sold,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement.

“Hurricane Irma’s direct hit on Florida weighed on activity in the South, but similar to how Houston has rebounded after Hurricane Harvey, Florida’s strong job and population growth should guide sales back to their pre-storm pace fairly quickly.”

Economists consider pending sales a leading indicator because they track contract signings.

Outside of the storms’ effects, the housing market is being hindered by a lack of properties that has driven up prices. Sales of homes listed for less than $250,000 are down from last year, while those at the upper end of the bracket are “up solidly,” the NAR said. Nonetheless, steady hiring, easier credit availability and borrowing costs still near historically low levels remain sources of support for the housing recovery.

And finally a little context for this ‘housing recovery’…