This morning, The National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales fell 2.6% last month, which was more than twice the drop that analysts had expected. Currently, sales are over 15% lower than this time last year. To boot, the median price slid 6.1% to $215,100. Inventories stood at a 11.1 month supply, which is the second-highest level in 24 years. Barrons might want to rethink its housing position.

Additionally, a survey done by Freddie Mac showed that mortgage rates on 30-year mortgages jumped to 6.63% this week, up from 6.26% last week. That is a huge rise in just a week, showing that progress is going in the wrong direction. One interesting nugget from the report is that sales actually increased 1% in the west.