Data on existing home sales for January are set for release at the top of the hour.
Economists estimate that sales of existing condos, co-ops and single-family houses fell 2.5% at an annualized pace of 5.32 million.
In December, existing home sales rose from a 19-month low with the biggest gain ever recorded in the history of the series. And so, we could see an expected reversal.
In a client preview, Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote,
"The headline existing home sales numbers for January, by contrast, likely will be down sharply from December. But recent months' data have been volatile, because the tightening of mortgage lending regulations effective October 1 persuaded buyers to bring forward transactions, depressing November activity and then prompting an unsustainable rebound in December. Something like normal service should resume in January, with sales falling back to the 5.3M or so implied by the pending home sales index."