US existing home sales fall, in line with expectations

In May, US existing home sales came out close to expectations. Existing home sales fell by 3.8% M/M to 4.81 million, while the consensus was looking for a decline to 4.80 million. The April figure was downwardly revised from 5.05 million to 5 million. The details show that existing home sales of both single family homes (-3.2% M/M) and condos (-8.1% M/M) fell in May. Weakness was also broad-based across regions as sales dropped in the Midwest (-6.4% M/M), South (-5.1% M/M) and Northeast (-2.5% M/M), while they stabilized in the West. The number of existing homes for sales fell by 1.0% M/M to 3.720 million, while months’ supply rose from 9.0 to 9.3 million. The adverse weather and stingy bank lending probably resulted in fewer contracts in May. Also in the coming months existing home sales will probably continue to face pressure.