Pending Home Sales Drop

The resale market has been flat and may be about, despite the strength for new home sales, to turn lower. The pending home sales index for May fell 0.5 percent to just make the low end of Econoday's consensus range. Weakness in the report is concentrated in the South which is by far the biggest housing region and where contract signings for resales have fallen 3.5 and 1.0 percent the last two reports. These results underscore recent home-price updates including yesterday's Case-Shiller report that point to ebbing price appreciation for existing homes.