The NAR released it’s Pending Home Sales Report today at 10:00 am Eastern Time. I however, started working on it at 7:00 EST with the working title of Pending Home Sales Hit All Time Low, and as you can see, I didn’t have to change the title. According to Marketwatch this morning:
The pending home sales index fell 6.5% in August after dropping a revised 10.7% in July, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday. The index is at its lowest level since its inception in 2001.
Pending home sales are down 21.5% compared with a year ago and is down 22% compared with six months ago.
The few economists who forecast the index were looking for a drop of about 2.1% in August.
Unbelievably, on CNBC this morning as the numbers were being reported, the reporter said, This may meet the technical definition of a bottom, as it’s hard to imagine the numbers getting any worse.
In the school of economics I’m used to [And yeah, I’m not an economist] bottoms involve things like troughs and moderating declines, and aren’t defined by a lack of imagination. I’m just not seeing anything resembling a bottom:
Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors stated:
