Existing Home Sales (August)

Existing Home Sales - Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate  5,030,000.  Pervious was 4,670,000
Existing Home Sales - Month/Month Change +7.7%

 

This is a chart of monthly Existing Home Sales (grey bars) and mortgage rates (brown line.) The value if that chart is mitigated by the First Time Homebuyer credit which expired April 2011.

It may be the case that folks believe that home prices will not increase any time soon and there is no rush to buy. 

MBA Mortgage Index

Purchase Index - Week/Week Change -4.7 %
Refinance Index - Week/Week Change 2.2 %
Composite Index - Week/Week Change 0.6 %

The positive news about Existing Home Sales is mitigated by the soft purchase index from MBA.

The best solution for the housing sector would be to encourage the clearing of existing inventory and shadow inventory by providing more FNMA lending for rentals.  The fact is that there are folks who are in homes they own and haven't made payments on for months.  The goal might be to have them stay but as renters.   

FOMC

The FOMC meeting ends today.  I don't believe that the usual discussion about rates or money supply are paramount.  The Fed must explain what its plans are for Eurozone dollar liquidity.