Existing Home Sales Fall In November

New closing rules appear to have depressed sales of existing homes in November which fell 10.5 percent to a much lower-than-expected annualized rate of 4.760 million. The year-on-year rate, for the first time since September last year, is suddenly in the negative column, at minus 3.8 percent. The National Association of Realtors, which compiles the report, attributes the weakness to the "Know Before You Owe" initiative which is lengthening closing times and which likely makes November an outlier. The NAR suspects that the sales delays in November are likely to give a boost to December's totals.

Recent History Of This Indicator:
Existing home sales dipped back in October with the year-on-year gain at only 3.9 percent. Weakness was split roughly evenly between single-family homes, down 3.7 percent in the month to a 4.75 million rate, and condos, down 1.6 percent to a 610,000 rate. Lack of supply on the market, at only 4.8 months, has been holding down sales but hasn't yet been giving prices a major boost, up only 5.8 percent year-on-year. For November, the Econoday consensus is calling for a 5.32 million annualized rate, down what would be 0.8 percent in the month. The consensus estimate, based on weakness in pending home sales data, does not point to a rising sales trend nor to greater home-price appreciation.