An industry group said Tuesday that pending U.S. home sales fell in February to the lowest reading since the index began (emphasis added), signaling the housing market distress is not yet over.The National Association of Realtors' seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell to 84.6 from January's upwardly revised reading of 86.2. The index stood at 107.6 in February 2007.
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With house prices falling and credit continuing to tighten, many economists say the housing market is likely to worsen in the coming months, though some remain hopeful about a recovery in the second half of the year.
"The question was whether things were starting to stabilize," said Global Insight economist Patrick Newport. "Apparently they're not."
Wow, pretty scary, isn't it? You might think we're on the verge of a depression, if not already in one. This being an election year, we may assume the Democrats will make more than a little hay with the survey results. We may also assume the Democrats, like the AP, will leave off the fact the National Association of Realtors began taking this survey way, way, way back in 2001, which was "the first of four consecutive record years for existing-home sales."
Funny, is it not, the AP didn't see fit to mention that possibly significant fact in its piece...in an election year. It surely is mere co-incidence.
(h/t the Volokh Report.)
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