Existing Home Sales for June 23, 2009

Existing home sales stood at 4.77M, weaker than expectation for 4.82M. This data was bond friendly.

The release of this data also came with some welcomed comments from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Since the inception of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), which was on May 1st of this year, 5% of all purchase contracts have been cancelled due to very low appraised values. This has been a problem for the mortgage industry for refinances as well. The utilization of Appraisal Management Companies has created a bottle neck through conservative values as well as inflated costs due to a middle man looking for compensation. The NAR and other associations are putting pressure on the HVCC's creator, the NY Attorney General, to eliminate this system, altogether. If you haven't done so already, you can voice your opinion through the electronic petition located at http://www.hvccpetition.com/. To date, there are over 38,000 signatures.