Existing Home Sales Have Recovered From COVID-19

“U.S. Existing-Home Sales Surged 24.7% in July on Low Rates” blares the Wall Street Journal this morning. That sounded pretty impressive until I got hold of the underlying data from the National Association of Realtors:
Technically, it’s true that existing home sales increased a lot from June to July. But the real story is less dramatic: home sales took a big hit when COVID-19 first hit and then recovered quickly. That might be an interesting story in itself, but it’s definitely not a story of booming home sales.
As always, beware of headlines that seem too good to be true.