Housing takes another header

The Pending Home Sales Index is a "leading indicator" for actual sales on the existing home side. Traditionally, the National Association of Realtors only reported actual existing home sales, which are based on closings (and as anyone who has bought a house knows, they occur 30-60 days after contract signings). The pending index is based on signings, so it's more up to date.

Anyway, April pending sales were down 3.7% MOM from March … triple market expectations of a 1% decline. Worse, the pending home sales index is now down almost 12% from a year earlier. In the Midwest (17%) and West (19%), sales were down huge. This is more evidence the soft landing story is crap, in my opinion.