CHANGE: Home Sales Hit New Low. “Fewer people purchased previously occupied homes in May, bringing sales down to their lowest level of the year. Home sales sank 3.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.81 million homes, the weakest pace since November, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Economists say that’s far below the 6 million homes per year sold in healthy housing markets.” And what’s really telling is that some are playing this as good news.

But note this: “Another growing problem is that some sales that are under contract and almost finished are falling apart at the last minute. The Realtors’ trade group has noted that an increasing number of deals have been canceled because an appraisal came in below a negotiated price, scuttling home loans in the process.” Not a sign of a recovering market.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Glenn,

For a month I have looked for a used home in Henderson, NV.

Concerning “The Realtors’ trade group has noted that an increasing number of deals have been canceled because an appraisal came in below a negotiated price…”, I think this is half the story. The other half is the failure to pass a final inspection. Many of these homes in Las Vegas have been without maintenance for months and months. Mold and wall cracks are asserting themselves. Appraisers are willing to give the value of the home the benefit of the doubt, factoring in the labor of the new home owner to bring the home up to the value they grant to it. I have seen 20 homes recently, and most of them needed $20-25K of improvements to reach the offered price.

While appraisers need to please real estate agents for referrals, home inspectors do not. They are shutting down these deals to protect the new owners from themselves.

Like people who stay unemployed for too long, houses that stay unsold for too long lose some of their saleability.