NAR: April pending home sales drop 7.7% M-oM- (vs 1.1% drop expected)

Economy
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Peak season is looking like a total miss this year.

WASHINGTON (May 30, 2024) – Pending home sales in April fell 7.7%, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. All four U.S. regions registered month-over-month and year-over-year decreases.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI)* – a forward-looking indicator of home sales based on contract signings – decreased to 72.3 in April. Year over year, pending transactions were down 7.4%. An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001. . . .

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:thinking:

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The net result of US policy has been to maximize mortgage debt,
not maximize home ownership.

A rich country?
Americans are the second most likely in the world to have mortgage debt.

But relatively poor countries like Lithuania, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland Greece etc., have
1.) higher rates of home ownership
-and-
2.) higher rates of owning one’s home free-and-clear.

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Are those two categories not a big part of the definition of wealth and well-offness?

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Dang, I need to visit Lithuania sometime! Looks like it could be fun.

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Probably a bunch of soviet era condo buildings,
but still, 93% home-ownership and 83% free-and-clear no mortgage seems like it would have a huge effect on overall financial well-being.
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I happen to know for a fact that owning a home outright is far superior to paying on a mortgage! :rofl:

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