U.S. home sales far to 13-year low in September

TheStreet’s J.D. Durkin brings you the biggest news of the day, including how the markets fared and why the U.S. housing market remains frozen.

Transcript

00:00 I'm JD Durkin reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:03 Stocks were down across the board to close out today's trading session, with the Dow,

00:06 Nasdaq and S&P 500 all finishing in the red.

00:10 Wall Street is continuing to digest comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell today.

00:15 He noted that inflation is still far too high and that recent strong economic data could

00:19 give way to higher interest rates.

00:22 As of now, markets are pricing in a 99% chance that the U.S. Central Bank leaves interest

00:28 rates unchanged when it meets in November.

00:31 Wall Street is also closely monitoring earnings season, with over 15% of S&P 500 companies

00:37 releasing results.

00:38 Of those, 74% have beat Wall Street expectations.

00:42 Meanwhile, we're following what is currently a frozen housing market in the United States.

00:47 In the month of September, historically low inventory and interest rates of more than

00:51 7% led home sales to drop to their lowest point since 2010, according to the National

00:56 Association of Realtors.

00:58 September home sales dropped 15.8% from this time a year ago.

01:03 Prices rose in all four regions of the country, while sales only increased in the Northeast.

01:08 The median price for an existing home in September was $394,300, a 2.8% increase from a year

01:16 ago and marked the third consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.

01:22 First time homebuyers made up just 27% of the market, a significant drop from the average

01:26 range of 30-40%.

01:29 And it doesn't seem as if it'll get much easier for prospective homebuyers either.

01:33 Interest rates have since crossed the 8% threshold, meaning the freeze will likely continue to

01:38 close out the year.

01:40 That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:41 From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, I'm J.D. Durkin with The Street.