By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
October 2 2007: 11:04 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com)
The meltdown in the mortgage market in August dried up the supply of buyers for homeowners looking to sell their homes, as an industry group report showed the lowest level of homes under contract on record.
The National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index fell to a record low of 85.5 from an upwardly revised 91.4 reading in July. That broke the previous low of 89.8 in September 2001, the period in which the terrorist attack shook buyer confidence. The trade group started the index in 2001.
This time the hit to home sales came from buyers having trouble finding the financing they needed to buy homes, coupled with the reluctance of some buyers to jump into the battered market.
"Fewer contracts were being written because of mortgage availability issues, and a separate internal survey of our members shows more than 10 percent of sales contracts fell through at the last moment in August, primarily the result of canceled loan commitments," said a statement from Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the group. "The volume of activity we’re seeing today is below sustainable market fundamentals because some creditworthy people are trying to buy homes but can’t because of the credit crunch."
See the full article here:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/02/news/economy/pending_home_sales/?postversion=2007100211
