Pending Home Sales get snowed in

By Peter Boockvar - March 4th, 2010, 10:45AM

Jan Pending Home Sales, a measure of contract signings of existing homes, fell an unexpected 7.6% m/o/m vs the forecasted gain of 1%. The NAR chief economist blamed the decline on the “abnormally severe and prolonged winter weather, which affected large regions of the US, hampered shopping activity in Feb.” His belief is that we’ll get a rubber band snapback Apr thru June but the spring is always the busiest time of the yr. Bottom line, there is no question that weather impacted activity but the market is also seeing the hangover from the large pickup last summer/fall induced by lower mortgage rates and the home buying tax credit. Spring will see improvement as it always does and also due to the knowledge that the Fed’s purchases of MBS end as does the home buying tax credit, so pent up demand will be there. The real question though is what happens this summer into the fall when the government steroid shots wear off.

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Category: MacroNotes.

Comments

Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

4 Responses to “Pending Home Sales get snowed in”

tradeking13 Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 11:22 am
So, January Pending Home Sales were affected by severe weather in February. Explain that one to me, Mr. Yun.
Market Talk » Blog Archive » Housing’s Better? Wait Until The Shots Wear Off Says:
March 4th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
[...] be surprising considering it’s typically a busier time of year for the housing market, says Miller Tabak equity strategist Peter [...]
Links for the light of day and a quick recap « ClosingGuyInPittsburgh Says:
March 5th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
[...] home sales was the big story so here’s the analysis from Calculated Risk, The Big Picture and CNBC. The number wasn’t good, but it was January and January is never a strong month. [...]
Pending Home Sales Drop in January, Still Up From 2009 Says:
March 8th, 2010 at 12:58 am
[...] Boockvar of The Big Picture Blog said, “Spring will see improvement as it always does and also due to the knowledge that the [...]