Week in Review: Why the existing home sales number was so lousy.
weeklytearsheet.substack.com
Last Friday’s Existing Homes Sales data from the National Association of Realtors was nothing less than awful. Sales fell 1.5% month-over-month and 34% year-over-year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million. This was lower than the pandemic-driven nadir in 2020 and you would have to go back to the housing collapse of 2008 to see similar numbers. Unlike the housing crash of yesteryear, the inventory of homes for sale is too low, not too high. There were only 970,000 homes for sale, which is extremely low by historical standards. So, it isn’t like there is a glut of homes flooding the market, we have a shortage. Affordability issues would imply high prices, and high prices should bring sellers out of the woodwork. But that isn’t happening because this isn’t about prices - it is about rates.
Week in Review: Why the existing home sales number was so lousy.
Week in Review: Why the existing home sales…
Week in Review: Why the existing home sales number was so lousy.
Last Friday’s Existing Homes Sales data from the National Association of Realtors was nothing less than awful. Sales fell 1.5% month-over-month and 34% year-over-year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million. This was lower than the pandemic-driven nadir in 2020 and you would have to go back to the housing collapse of 2008 to see similar numbers. Unlike the housing crash of yesteryear, the inventory of homes for sale is too low, not too high. There were only 970,000 homes for sale, which is extremely low by historical standards. So, it isn’t like there is a glut of homes flooding the market, we have a shortage. Affordability issues would imply high prices, and high prices should bring sellers out of the woodwork. But that isn’t happening because this isn’t about prices - it is about rates.