Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Unexpectedly Declines; Housing Still Constructive!

From Bloomberg online:

Fewer Americans signed contracts in June to buy previously owned homes, representing a pause in the housing market’s momentum.

The index of pending home sales unexpectedly fell 1.8 percent, the first drop this year, after a revised 0.6 percent increase in May that was smaller than initially reported, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Wednesday in Washington. The median forecast of 37 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.9 percent gain.

The data are consistent with the slow improvement in housing, restrained by still-tight lending standards and a limited selection of available properties.

An easing of those conditions, along with an acceleration in wage growth, would allow more Americans to take advantage of cheap borrowing costs and provide more of a tailwind for real estate.

“There’s still ongoing demand for housing,” said Ryan Wang, an economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York, who projected a drop in contract signings. The report “just tells us that sales have been roughly unchanged for the last couple of months, but the trend is still broadly positive...”
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Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-29/pending-sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-unexpectedly-fell-in-june