Realtors See Housing Starting to Cool; Lenders Back in Black; "Young" Housing in Sun Belt

Expectations weren't particularly high for a solid July report on home purchase contracts, but today's report from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) didn't meet even those . NAR's Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) came in at 106.2, down from an upwardly revised (from 106.9) 107.0 in June, a decline of 0.7 percent. The decrease put the PHSI 2.3 percent behind its level in July 2017. It was the seventh straight month the NAR's leading indicator for existing home sales has trailed on an annual basis. It would have been difficult for the results to fall outside of the wide range of estimates from analysts polled by Econoday. They ranged from a loss of 1.1 percent to a positive 1.0 percent change. However, the July index was well off the consensus which was for the index to remain unchanged

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http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/reports/newsletter/2018/8/29/3522