U.S. existing home sales fall from 10-year high

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters



Wed Mar 22, 2017 | 10:08am EDT

U.S. home resales fell more than expected in February amid a persistent shortage of houses on the market that is pushing up prices and sidelining potential buyers.

The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday existing home sales declined 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million units last month.

January's sales pace was unrevised at 5.69 million units, which was the highest level since February 2007. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales decreasing 2.0 percent to a pace of 5.57 million units last month.

Sales were up 5.4 percent from February 2016, underscoring the sustainability of the housing market recovery despite rising mortgage rates. Demand for housing is being buoyed by a labor market that is near full employment. But home sales remain constrained by the dearth of properties available for sale, which is keeping prices elevated.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-idUSKBN16T1SD

[lapfog_1]

1. falling stock market

falling home sales
administration under investigation for treason
healthcare debacle
no legislation passed
$3M dollars per week to go the "southern white house"
hugely unpopular budget cuts to pay for the military budget increase
foreign policy disaster
Mexico will not have to pay for the "wall", taxpayers will
alt facts and fake news coming from the podium of the white house

Welcome to Trump'merica, y'all, hope you are fucking happy Trump voters.

Layoffs in 3, 2, 1...

[ffr]

4. +1 It's coming sooner than any of us anticipated. I suppose the reds really screwed us bigley!

Illegitimate #45. Sad.

[IronLionZion]

2. With the visionary real estate genius in the white house

I would expect no less.

With prices high, people should sell. builders should build. Or maybe they are forecasting a downturn real soon due to idiotic economic policies.

[CountAllVotes]

3. Guess puke house flippers will have to get a real job!

How SAD! Bubble just went *pop*.

[Marthe48]

5. I'm going to be selling a house

I'm hoping to get enough to pay it off, and be done with it. My husband and I just bought it 2 years ago, and moved in, but it didn't work out, so we moved back to our old house.

[karynnj]

7. At least from the article, this could be an excellent time to do so

The lower number of sales is blamed on the reduced number of existing houses for sale. This suggests the problem is not the demand, but the supply! The quoted part also says that this is leading to higher prices. (Note there is reference to near full employment.)

Compare to late 2008/2009, when the prices nose dived and the market had a glut of houses that people were often forced to sell and few buyers -- with even many employed people not feeling secure enough to enter into a mortgage.

PS Note that it was the good policies and hard work of 8 years of Obama that led to that change in economic wellbeing. I know Trump took credit for things improving in December and January, but we have yet to see the impact of his administration - even if some write things to the contrary.

[Marthe48]

8. I agree we owe a lot to President Obama

and nothing to trump. Thank you for the boost

[haele]

6. The PPT will return and try to keep the bubble going until October, 2018.

(PPT = "Plunge Protection Team" - a bunch of billionaire Bush Buddy hedge funds and banks that laundered - err - pumped money into the economy to prop the stock market up.)

Wall Street will keep calling this a "correction" to make up for Obama's economy, and get the Hedge Funds and "Financial News" to fudge small gains to keep the general panic at bay until after the mid-terms. They'll also (if they haven't already) draw straws to determine who will be the sacrificial "Too Big To Fail" institution that will fail - maybe Wells Fargo? All this in an attempt to keep the Klepto-GOP in power long enough to put the final nails in the coffin of the New Deal and Democracy as the average citizen in the U.S. understood it.

Then our Pledge of Allegiance will be to the Oligarchy of Goldman Sachs and whichever their associated "Families" will be in charge of the surviving regions.

Haele