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Pending home sales roar back, suggesting a spring uptick for housing Published: Feb 27, 2019 10:42 a.m. ET


Great read, good news: click on link for more:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pending-home-sales-roar-back-suggesting-a-spring-uptick-for-housing-2019-02-27 

 

‘The reopening of the government (was) very beneficial to the market,’ the Realtors say

Bloomberg News/Landov
A sale pending sign stands in front of a home in Massachusetts.
The numbers: A measure of pending home-sales jumped 4.6% in January, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Sales were 2.3% lower than a year ago, making January the 13th straight month of year-over-year declines.
What happened: NAR’s pending home-sales index, which tracks home contract signings, registered at a reading of 103.2 in January after it touched a nearly five-year low in December. Most economists expected the January bounce. And the trade group itself said the reopening from the partial government shutdown brought an expected boost to early-year housing activity. Still, January’s reading beat the Econoday consensus forecast of a 1% increase. In January, pending sales increased in every region. They were up 1.6% in the Northeast, 2.8% in the Midwest, 0.3% in the West and a whopping 8.9% in the South.
Big picture: With a broad array of headwinds and tailwinds buffeting the housing market, sales patterns have been choppy. Contract signings usually precede closings by about 45 days, so the pending home-sales index is a leading indicator for upcoming existing-home sales reports. The Realtors expect sales of existing homes to be 1.1% lower in 2019 than last year.
What they’re saying: On Tuesday, as investors digested fresh evidence of a slumping housing market, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress that he and his colleagues are weighing “conflicting signals” from the economy. That comes as some analysts are turning somewhat more bullish on housing.“February existing home sales should now rebound handily and with new home sales likely to head higher too, given the rising trend in mortgage demand, the gloomy housing narrative in markets and the media is set to change quite dramatically over the next few months. The market is not rolling over, and it is not a harbinger of recession in the broader economy.”
Time will tell if the current downturn is just a pause, or the beginning of the endof the current housing cycle.
Market reaction: Homebuilder stocks ITB, +1.27%  , which have roared higher this year in anticipation of a coming rebound in housing, slid Tuesday following the release of a dismal report on new construction. Shares of LGI Homes, Inc.LGIH, +0.96%  , which are up nearly 30% in the year to date, fell nearly 3% Tuesday. KB Home KBH, +2.29%  ’s stock, up more than 22% for the year, also declined.


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