Existing Home Sales (Jan.)

Existing home sales managed to eke out a small gain in January, even as inventory fell to new record lows. But the lack of supply means activity will fall back to earth later in 2021, reinforced by rising mortgage interest rates. Indeed, mortgage applications for home purchase dropped to a three-month low last week, and existing home sales are set to fall back from 6.7m annualised in January to around 5.7m by year-end.