How accurate are the reported existing home sales? In August they were down 4.4% from July. How do they count sales, when escrow closes or when an offer is accepted?
I find it amazing that existing home sales only declined 4.4% in August from July. I would have thought that mortgages would have been much tougher to get in August vs. July but apparently that wasn’t the case. There are still a lot of people buying homes. Will we see the big decline in September?
Those are closed sales, so August reflects deals made in June-July. The impact of the mortgage mess will hit about the same time as the typical seasonal slowdown (Sept-Oct). Weak sales are baked into the cake for Sept and Oct.
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