Pending Sales of Previously Owned U.S. Homes Unexpectedly Fall

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

Contract signings to purchase previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly fell in September by the most since the end of 2013, indicating the residential real estate market is cooling from its recent brisk pace.

An index of pending home sales dropped 2.3 percent in September after a 1.4 percent decline a month earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. The decrease exceeded the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

A limited selection of properties may be dissuading some from trading up, while stricter credit standards are making it difficult for others to qualify for loans. At the same time, housing demand will probably be underpinned by cheap borrowing costs and employment opportunities.

“There continues to be a dearth of available listings in the lower end of the market for first-time buyers," NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. Still, “with interest rates hovering around 4 percent, rents rising at a near eight-year high, and job growth holding strong -- albeit at a more modest pace than earlier this year -- the overall demand for buying should stay at a healthy level.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-29/pending-sales-of-previously-owned-u-s-homes-unexpectedly-fall

[houston16revival]

1. As Robert Kiyosaki reminds us repeatedly

A house is not an asset, it's a liability that sucks money

It takes growth in real wages to trade up

People have figured out the cost of flipping, rebuilding, the obscene profits going
to banks and builders

Remodeling is the new chic

[elmac]

3. So very, very true

they don't call them the money pit for nothing. If interest rates ever go up, which I doubt, that will be the final nail in the housing coffin, then the banksters will need to use something else to tie their booming economy to.

[LittleGirl]

2. Those with kids in school

don't move during the school year unless they have to for job changes. This is typical.

[w0nderer]

4. could be also be affected by

that people have taken pay cuts
more people who aren't first time buyers look for 'lower end' houses (downsizing)

[sinkingfeeling]

5. My rental house just sold in 8 days. House was built in 1954 and I redid it in 2008.

[MisterP]

6. the operative word is probably "built in 1954": everyone denounced them as ticky-tacky

back then but they had NO IDEA of how tofu-dregs the developers could get