Nothing like asking people with their own skin in the game, whether the bottom is at hand... I believe some of the home builder CEOs were saying the worst was behind us last summer.
Note the comment from the realtors own economist (bottom of article) hah - some birds never change their tune.
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Pending Sales of Existing Homes Fell in July to Lowest Level Since September 2001
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pending sales of existing homes fell in July to the lowest level in nearly six years as borrowers struggled to finalize home purchases, particularly in expensive areas.
The National Association of Realtors said its seasonally adjusted index of pending home sales for July fell 16.1 percent from a year ago and 12.2 percent from the prior month.
July's reading of 89.9 was the second-lowest ever for the index and its lowest since September 2001, when the economy was jolted by the terrorist attacks."Numbers like this should put to rest the belief that we've reached the bottom" in the housing market, said Joel Naroff, chief economist for Commerce Bancorp Inc. "There's still a lot of pain that's ahead of us."
The index is designed to predict sales levels over the following two months. A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of pending sales activity in 2001, when the index began.Lawrence Yun, the Realtors trade group's senior economist, called the problems "temporary," and related to jumbo home loans above $417,000 that can't be packaged into securities sold to investors by government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Some home purchases aren't closing because mortgage loans have been "falling through at the last moment," Yun said in a statement.
