- by New Deal democrat
It's a slow economic news week, but while we are waiting for new home sales Friday, we did get existing home sales today.
It was a good report. Not only was there an increase month over month, but it was the 3rd highest number for this entire expansion:
Even better, the three month moving average made a new high for this expansion.
But contain you enthusiasm, because even though existing home sales are about 90% of the market, they are the least economically important (because of all the activity that goes into building a new house).
The bad news is that prices made a new all time high, and inventory remains very constrained.
Absent housing, consumer inflation is running at only a little over 1%. The Fed raising rates is not going to bring on new inventory, and only make the inventory that does exist more expensive for mortgage borrowers.
So now we wait for Friday.
