Moments ago, the always laughable realtor advertising agency known as the NAR, reported that its agents were not making as much money as they had hoped, when pending home sales in February tumbled by 10.2%, well below expectations of a -9.0% drop, and below the January decline of -9.3%. Why? Here is what the cuddly Larry Yun, NAR chief economist, said was the culprit: "Contract signings for the past three months have been little changed, implying the market appears to be stabilizing. Moreover, buyer traffic information from our monthly Realtor survey shows a modest turnaround, and some weather delayed transactions should close in the spring."
In other words, the February collapse was further aggravated by ongoing harsh weather in February. That's fine - we even went so far as showing where the regional sales moves were in February. What is quite visible on the chart below is that the largest collapse in February activity was in Southern states, which is clearly due to the Tropical Vortex.
Wait...what?
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