U.S. existing home sales tumbled to the lowest level in more than two years in January as falling inventory raised house prices.
Home sales dropped 8.4% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91 million units, the lowest level since December 2023, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales declining to a rate of 4.18 million units.
8.4% is a huge drop
The fiat debt based monetary system is heavily reliant upon the rent coming in from 'homeowners'.
As the global petrodollar hegemony of the USA is increasingly fragile the rent on debt is stuck in a narrow band.
Raising interest rates much would collapse the entire edifice, there would be mass defaults...while lowering the rate much is not an option as banks would collapse.
The petrodollar and its financial derivatives face paralysis.
The true driver of real wealth is competitive productive output and China has already won the trade war.
Property prices are likely to stagnate if not decline significantly in coming years.