The pending homes sales reported this week for April fell by the largest amount ever recorded, 21.8% from March and down 33.8% year over year. While that is very bad news and could be an indication of falling prices in the months ahead all is not dire.
Reported earlier ‘new’ home sales rose month over month and applications for financing have gone up for six consecutive weeks, meaning buyers are lining up mortgage loans for when they are ready to enter the housing market. Since there never was a glut of homes for sale the market is not oversupplied thus despite the lack of new sales contracts being signed prices could stay relatively high.
The big unknown is how many people will be returning to work after the stay at home order is lifted and how confident will they be about their jobs to return to the home buying market.