Despite tumbling mortgage rates, existing homesales plunged (the most since COVID) in January, with some blaming 'below-normal temperatures' despite The West suffering the biggest declines (and unaffected by the winter storms).
Consensus was for a modest 0.8% MoM decline in February (again despite an ongoing drop in mortgage rates) butsales actually surprised to the upside, rising 1.7% MoM. Perhaps even more notably,January's 8.4% MoM plunge was revised up to a slightly less crazy 5.9% MoM drop...
With the beat and upward revision, existing home sales weredown just 1.45% YoY but SAAR topped 4mm(4.09mm) once again...
On the bright side, with mortgage rates at their lowest since 2022, existing home sales look set to continue to improve (unless Trump's war triggers more panic in rates)...
Mortgage rates fell at the end of last month to 6.09% afterPresident Trump asked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to help lower home-financing costs.
The NAR’s monthly housing affordability gauge, which reflects changes in home prices, median income and borrowing costs, stands at the most-favorable reading since 2022.
“Housing affordability is improving, and consumers are responding,”NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.
“Still, there is a long way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels of transaction activity.”
The NAR report showed the median selling price rose 0.3% from a year earlier — one of the smallest advances since the pandemic housing frenzy — to $398,000 last month.
Theinventory of previously owned homes increased4.9% from a year ago to 1.29 million —the most for any February since 2020.
Source: ZeroHedge News
