Americans again signed fewer contracts to buy homes in June, as the real estate market continues to deteriorate following the removal of a key stimulus from Uncle Sam.
The pending home sales index—a gauge of the housing market’s health that measures signed sales contracts—dipped nearly 3 percent in June from a month earlier to its lowest-ever level, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The index, which launched in 2001, fell 19 percent from June 2009.
The disappointing reading comes after pending home sales posted a staggering 30 percent drop from April to May. “If you are looking for a pulse in the U.S. housing market, best of luck,” says Mike Larson of Weiss Research. “After the big plunge, I think there were some expectations that you would see home sales get a little bit of a ‘dead cat’ bounce. Clearly it wasn’t there.”
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