Pending homes sales sunk unexpectedly in January as demand for homes continues to decline. Also pushing down figures, adverse weather conditions on the East preventing people from home shopping this month. These and other economic factors led sales agreements to fall 7.6 percent from December to January. A seasonally adjusted January reading of 90.4, disappointed economists who had predicted a rise to 97.6 for the month. This was the worst reading since last April.
Pinning the negative numbers entirely would be ignoring troubling factors of the decline. The weakness was felt across the board, not only exclusively to the snowy Northeast. The West endured the worst dip of all, with sales tumbling 13 percent.
Sales in the Northeast slid 9 percent while Southern and Midwestern sales slipped 2 percent.
The problem then, is greater than snowstorms. It’s likely that the government supports in the housing market are starting to lose their novelty and many buyers seem to feel that they will extend until the housing market improves. The index, at least in part to this, has fallen two out of the past three months as potential home buyers don’t feel pressure to purchase now that the deadline for a homebuyer tax credit has been extended from Nov. 30 to April 30.
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