Pending Home Sales Up Slightly in March

Submitted by
CalculatedRisk on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 7:04am (23 comments)
Money Man wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:04 am

Ahhh yes, sales UP prices DOWN...RALLY MONKEY!!!!!!

volker the viking wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:05 am

byzantine ruins writes: "The question to me is, what have we really seen and what should we take away from that?"

ever the rhetorician

Tupuli wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:06 am

Jesus

nallen wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:06 am

Seems like simple seasonal variation....move along, nothing to see here...

Rob Dawg wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:07 am

Repeat after me: seasonality.

ac wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:08 am

That's it... I'm buying every stock on the market until we hit 1500 on the S&P!!!!

sportsfan wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:08 am

Up 1.1% YOY. Could there be 1.1% more people YOY?

Samdog wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:09 am

"nallen (profile) wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 10:06 am
Seems like simple seasonal variation....move along, nothing to see here."

You stole my thoughts before I could even post ...

Rob Dawg wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:10 am

The Pending Home Sales index leads existing home sales by about 45 days, so the March pending report suggests existing home sales will increase slightly from April to May.

45 days? That's so 2005. Just look at the 5 houses that went pending in Jim the Realtor's video yesterday. Those 5 don't even have the slabs poured.

anoddamoose wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:11 am

"Ahhh yes, sales UP prices DOWN"

That is exactly what is needed to clear the market of excess inventory, or at least to reduce the overhang.

anoddamoose wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:12 am

Seasonal variation does not explain the 1.3% increase YoY.

Jay.D.. wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:12 am

............Bank of America Says It Isn’t Working on Plan to Raise $10 Bln..........

CNNMoney.com: 404 Page Not Found

wondering wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:13 am

Ac, only put your money in the worst, junky, nasty balance sheet ones -- those are our future! Don't bother with good balance sheets, strong cash-flow...Rally on.

anoddamoose wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:13 am

From a technical standpoint, we could top out at 900 - 910. That would represent a slight overshoot of the 60-min uptrend channel.

Anything above that is going to look like a breakout to a lot of traders.

The Mortgage Pig wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:13 am

Private Construction Spending Declines Slightly in March

Tupuli wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:14 am

Who the hell is buying this rally?

Suppose the S&P goes under 600 later this year, what middle class investor will ever touch equities again? If the gap between the markets and the real economy grows any larger the next downturn could be a complete game changer.

Blackhalo wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:16 am

"10y bond 3.18% +0.03 (0.95%)"

Eventually interest rates will bring this happy dance to an end.

Arbitrage_Macht_Frei wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:16 am

We shall go on to the end, we shall loan in Finance, we shall loan on the seized assets, we shall loan with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island of fiscal insanity, whatever the cost may be, we shall loan on beach homes, we shall loan on the shakiest grounds, we shall loan in all fields of Wall Street, we shall loan in the trillions; we shall never surrender our consumerism.

kurtyboy wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:17 am

Well, 1.1% YOY is something--but I doubt the statistical significance of it. Where were we last march? A deep, deep hole and worsening--and 30-year mortgage rates were 72 bps higher and headed to 6.61.

It seems like some buyers are actually believing they are getting a deal, and the bottom is in. I got my doubts--I figure it's a glass bottom. You know, you've stopped, but you can still see how deep the shaft is under you. And the glass is making funny noises that don't sound much like "Going up!"

Samdog wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:17 am

Kind of sad when the PRC puts out more believable info:

"China's manufacturing sector returns to growth, data show"

Chinese manufacturing returns to growth, data show - MarketWatch

fried wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 7:41 am

I've been watching houses in vacation areas in Maine and Vermont...oceanfront and lakefront...and though prices have come down some, maybe 20% or so, the inventory seems to be exploding...and the time on the market lengthens. These are not REOs or short sales...perhaps people just trying to unload them, but damn, there's a lot of them for sale.

Money Man wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 8:21 am

China is subsidizing the purchase of durable goods to it's people. I call Bullshit on that rally.....

Money Man wrote on Mon, 5/4/2009 - 8:26 am

fried- the rich folks see the writing on the wall and want to save what they can by selling. They first thought it could come back but now realize it's toast...and the fantasy of RE being stable and not as volatile as the stock market is OVER. The reason RE was NOT as volatile in the past is BECAUSE it was not fueled by stock money. It HAS been fueled by stock money and false interest rates for over a DECADE. The jig is up and the truth will be a long painful journey and it aint no yellow brick road. I appraise homes for a living and I assure you those big ones are gonna fall harder that the low rent areas. It's just taking a little longer for the "Housing Ebola Flu" to move into the rich hoods but it's coming none the less.

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