Pending home sales fall to lowest since at least 2001 but...

The November Chicago manufacturing index had a nice jump to 55.8 from 44 and that was 10 pts above expectations. I don’t yet have the press release but I’m guessing the end of the UAW strikes was a big factor here for this Midwest region.

Pending home sales in October, measuring signed contracts of existing homes, fell 1.5% m/o/m, a bit better than the expected drop of 2%. The index itself is now at the lowest level in data going back to 2001. Keep in mind though, October is where we saw peak (for now at least) mortgage rates of about 8% in the latter part of the month. The weekly mortgage application data has seen a rebound in purchases so far in November in response to the drop.