Jan 6: Pending Home Sales Index at Record Low

Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/16655/Jan+6%3A+Pending+Home+Sales+Index+at+Record+Low
Posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 | In Stocks to Watch

Contributed by: Zacks Market Commentaries (http://www.zacks.com/) -

Pending Home Sales fell by 4% to a record low index value of 82.3 (since 2001 when the series began) in November. This follows a 0.7% decline in October. The index was 89.8 in October 2007, was as high as 101.4 in June of 2007, and decreased by 5.3% over the past year as the housing market has been converging to equilibrate itself. Current data does not reflect the impact of mortgage interest rates falling to 50 year lows in December.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a weakening was inevitable. Mounting job losses and very weak consumer confidence deterred home buyers from signing contracts in November, he said. December’s housing market activity could be comparably lower due to ongoing problems in the economy, so a real estate-focused stimulus plan is urgently needed.

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