Biggest 'Miss" in 12 Months......................from Rico

Existing home sales/purchases dropped 1.2% month-on-month, for the biggest drop in 2013.

- This was against 'expectations' for a 1.5% rise.

Note that these are closings with mortgage rates from the April/May period...before mortgage rates began to rise.

With mortgage applications having collapsed since May as mortgage rates rose, just imagine what the home sales numbers will show us for July.

This is NOT a picture of a housing "recovery" but rather of something else...or, as Napoleon put it: "The severity of the Russan winter has been greatly exaggerated."