Experts are citing the housing market as a source of worry for the economy overall, along with domestic and global political turmoil, and concerns over potential interest rate increases.
Douglas Coté, chief market strategist at Voya Financial, says that the issues housing is currently grappling with are to do with supply, rather than demand, “Limited supply is slowing sales, relentlessly driving up prices, and reducing affordability especially for first-time homebuyers,” though he concludes that this sector is expected to improve, since demand remains strong, MarketWatch reports.
On Thursday, data showed that existing-home sales fell to their lowest level since February 2016 in July, dropping a steeper-than-expected 0.7 percent from the prior month. That came on the heels of new home sales, which hit a nine-month low in July and was also weaker than analysts had been anticipating. The next read on pending home sales will be released Aug. 29, but it has been below year-ago levels for six straight months as of June.
