While the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index rose 3.5 percent from January to February, last month’s year-over-year gain of 0.7 percent was the smallest in 18 months.
The overall Index, for which 100 denotes an average level of activity, now measures 109.1.
At the same time, while the Pending Home Sales Index for the West increased 0.7 percent from January to February, it’s now 6.2 percent lower on a year-over-year basis, versus 0.4 percent higher in January, and currently measures a below average 96.4.
The history of housing prices teaches us again and again over literally hundreds of years, home price growth cannot long outstrip wage and inflation growth without correcting back to that trend line.
There is no, ‘this time it’s different.’
It is different this time, because the history of housing prices in America did not up to now include massive capital flight from a certain major nation that thrives on corruption and is hastily devaluing its currency. But yes, I agree with your point otherwise.
There’s nothing new under the sun.
The Japanese were dumping money into US real estate for a while in the 80’s. History teaches us that those capital flows can stop abruptly.
From 1992:
“The Japan that rarely said no to a U.S. real estate deal as little as two years ago lost its appetite in a big way in 1991, as new Japanese investment in U.S. properties plunged 61%, to the lowest level since 1985.
…
The drying up of Japanese real estate money in California was even more dramatic. Total investment tumbled 83% to $976 million, a trend the study attributes to the state’s steep recession.
…
and 74% in San Francisco to $127 million.”
And does real estate never go down?
“The analysts noted that the nation’s merciless real estate slump–caused by overbuilding, the slowing economy and a drying up of credit–has hammered a wide range of U.S. real estate tycoons as well, among them Donald J. Trump, Edward J. DeBartolo and John Portman.”
Maybe we should stick to quoting Sinclair since Fitzgerald seems wrong about their being no second acts in Americian life.
When did they National Association of Realtors get their credibility back? They didn’t exactly drive the economic car into the ditch the last time…but they sure did throw a lot of mud on the windshield.
There’s a big difference between the validity of their data and the conclusions they draw. Note the difference between their headline and ours.
Is there? They’ve had plenty of data “problems” in the past.
Pending Home sales did drop… because there is NO inventory! Seller’s can’t find a place to move to so they are not selling. Prop 13 in CA keeps older folks from moving out of their current county so young folks can’t buy. New development is VERY limited because space is not available close to jobs. Supply and demand will force prices higher. Rents are up, forcing wages up and increasing shared households…
You do realize that these are national numbers. So your theories aren’t very compelling