The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today that sales of existing homes (resales) were up slightly in September 2017 on a monthly basis. At a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million last month, that was practically unchanged from the 5.35 million estimate for August that was the lowest in a year.
On an annual basis, resales in September were 1.5% less than those in September 2016. It was the first contraction for existing home sales since July 2016.
There may be some storm effects to consider in these figures, but for yet another economic account softness, weakness, or however you wish to classify the trend started long before Harvey and Irma were superheated winds blowing across the Sahara. Perhaps some house closings were delayed in process by them, but the lack of significant rebound in September suggests underlying fundamentals rather than anything else.
This post was published at Wall Street Examiner on October 20, 2017.
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