Existing Home Sales Fall To Six Month Low
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Data from the National Association of Realtors Tuesday showed the sale of existing US homes during the month of May fell to a six-month low but were not as bad as some had expected.
The closely-tracked check on the America's severely depressed housing market was down 3.8 percent from 5 million in April to an annually adjusted 4.81 million. The prior month reading was revised lower from an initial reading of 5.05 million.
Economists had been expecting existing home sales for May to fall to 4.8 million units.
The NAR's report also showed a rise in preliminary contract signing numbers for the month, suggesting May could be one of the worst months for the housing market this year.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said temporary factors held back the market in May, as implied from prior data on contract signings. "Spiking gasoline prices along with widespread severe weather hurt house shopping in April, leading to soft figures for actual closings in May," he said. "Current housing market activity indicates a very slow pace of broader economic activity, but recent reversals in oil prices are likely to mitigate the impact going forward. The pace of sales activity in the second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first half, and will be much stronger than the second half of last year."
The Street will get figures on new home sales on Thursday, June 23rd. Economists are currently expecting a monthly reading of 310,000, what would be down about 4 percent from the initial 323,000 in new home sales reported for April.
The closely-tracked check on the America's severely depressed housing market was down 3.8 percent from 5 million in April to an annually adjusted 4.81 million. The prior month reading was revised lower from an initial reading of 5.05 million.
Economists had been expecting existing home sales for May to fall to 4.8 million units.
The NAR's report also showed a rise in preliminary contract signing numbers for the month, suggesting May could be one of the worst months for the housing market this year.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said temporary factors held back the market in May, as implied from prior data on contract signings. "Spiking gasoline prices along with widespread severe weather hurt house shopping in April, leading to soft figures for actual closings in May," he said. "Current housing market activity indicates a very slow pace of broader economic activity, but recent reversals in oil prices are likely to mitigate the impact going forward. The pace of sales activity in the second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first half, and will be much stronger than the second half of last year."
The Street will get figures on new home sales on Thursday, June 23rd. Economists are currently expecting a monthly reading of 310,000, what would be down about 4 percent from the initial 323,000 in new home sales reported for April.
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