
U.S. Housing Market to Get Uglier in Near Future - dmitriy_ko
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4230676-u-s-housing-market-get-uglier-near-future
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apo
Summary from the article:

 _Pending home sales ... counts how many contracts were signed rather than how
many sales actually closed that month. ... This morning, the National
Association of Realtors (NAR) released its Pending Home Sales Index for
November, an indication of the direction of actual sales to be reported for
December and January. This index for November fell to the lowest level since
May 2014 ...

...

And the index plunged 7.7% compared to November last year, the biggest year-
over-year percentage drop since June 2014._

Nevertheless:

 _" There is no reason to be concerned," the report said, reassuringly. And it
predicted "solid growth potential for the long-term."_

Later:

 _And this is a true and huge problem: Home prices have shot up for years,
even while wages ticked up at much slower rates. At some point, the market is
going to run out of people with median incomes who are willing to stretch to
the limit to buy a starter shack, and the market is going to run out of people
with high incomes who are willing to stretch to the limit to buy a median
house._

We in the US want housing to solve all sorts of self-inflicted economic ills:
our lack of savings; our inability to sacrifice in the short term and plan for
the future; our longing to live an unsustainable lifestyle promoted non-stop
in mass and social media; the homelessness problem; the fraying social
contract.

As some point it will become apparent how counterproductive policies promoting
home ownership were. In the meantime, the economic distortions on the upside
and downside will continue.

