– Non-Existing Home Sales Miss Expectations, Plunge 14% From Highs, Drop To 18 Month Low (ZeroHedge, Feb 21, 2014):
Existing home sales plunged 5.1% (considerably worse than the 4.1% drop expected) to its lowest level in 18 months. This extends the string of missed expectations to 5 months as even the ever-credible NAR chief economist said it was not the weather but “we can’t ignore the ongoing headwinds of tight credit, limited inventory, higher prices and higher mortgage interest rates.” First-time homebuyers plunged to a mere 26% of the total – the lowest share on record as all-cash (and spec) investors rose to a record 53% share of sales.
Key highlights from the report:
NAR President Steve Brown, co-owner of Irongate, Inc., Realtors® in Dayton, Ohio, said that in addition to disruptive weather, higher flood insurance rates are impacting the market in areas designated as flood zones, which account for roughly 8 to 9 percent of sales. “Thirty percent of transactions in flood zones were cancelled or delayed in January as a result of sharply higher flood insurance rates,” he said. “Since going into effect on October 1, 2013, about 40,000 home sales were either delayed or canceled because of increases and confusion over significantly higher flood insurance rates. The volume could accelerate as the market picks up this spring.”
The median time on market for all homes was 67 days in January, down from 72 days in December and 71 days on market in December 2013. Short sales were on the market for a median of 150 days in January, while foreclosures typically sold in 58 days and non-distressed homes took 66 days. Thirty-one percent of homes sold in January were on the market for less than a month.
No first-time homebuying. Anywhere:
First-time buyers accounted for 26 percent of purchases in January, down from 27 percent in December and 30 percent in January 2013. This is the lowest market share for first-time buyers since NAR began monthly measurement in October 2008; normally, they should be closer to 40 percent.
And your bubble full-frontal: 53% of all sales were either to “all cash” or investors “flippers”:
All-cash sales comprised 33 percent of transactions in January, up from 32 percent in December and 28 percent in January 2013. Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 20 percent of homes in January, compared with 21 percent in December and 19 percent in January 2013. Seven out of 10 investors paid cash in January.
Goodbye housing recovery, snow or no snow.
Anyone who can see knows the US is lying about any recovery. There isn’t one……they have sucked all wealth out of our economy, and our leaders enable them to steal even more. My story is that of millions…….this is the worst depression since 1870, and there is no opportunity to rebuild. Greedy guts have stolen everything.
I am only glad they are not any safer than the rest of us in the invisible battle with radiation that we are losing since none of the governments will tell us the truth. Especially the ones here on the west coast who are dancing with joy at the prospect of stealing all our homes……..CA will be unlivable in less than 5 years…..serves them right.
In the forum in Pompeii, in the tile work was the word summing up their entire society………..Profit.
That has become the same here in America. Nothing social, just more money. Like Pompeii, we face our own volcano, only this one is invisible.