Pending Home Sales dropped from last month and are at the lowest levels in a year, but as you can see from the above graph, there are still more homes under contract than this time last year.  Case Shiller reports that home prices around their 20 city sampling increased 5.6% from 12 months ago.  Much to many shopping first-time home buyers’ dismay, housing continues to be a strong point.

Weakness is being seen in the second GDP snapshot which showed 1.9% growth, where a 2.1% appreciation rate was expected.  Hopes for the 2017 year as a whole are still in the 2.25%-2.5% range.