News
Home Resales Tumble in January
Existing home sales fell 4.9% last month, to 4.82M units, the slowest pace since April 2014. The disappointing news in the National Association of Realtors report released today can largly be explained by a low supply of existing homes on the market. Economists had predicted a 4.97M unit pace, reports Bloomberg.
Troublingly, the dip followed round after round of mortgage rate cuts meant to spur buying, expecially among first-time house hunters. There were 1.87M unsold homes on the market a 0.5% decline from January 2014. The NAR said that the supply figure should be growing by 10%. The share of first-time buyers inched down from 29% to 28%, a figure well below the 40% or 45% considered essential to a housing recovery.
