[00:01] least that's what the headlines say, but there is some hope. Here's the real story. April home sales numbers came out today and they were basically flat, two important pieces of context that you should know here, and one of them I
[00:15] foremost, if you zoom out and look at the graph over the last 5 years, you see that yeah, the housing market is not really getting that much better in terms of total home sales, but it's also not getting worse. This is where we've been
[00:27] second, more encouraging thing is if you look right here in just the last couple of weeks, pending home sales are starting to go up. This chart here shows that since the middle of April, pending home sales are trending higher than they
[00:40] but if you actually look at some of the markets like Florida or California that home sales are going up there, too. Now, of course, this isn't some massive resurgence. We're not seeing some huge uptick in home sales, but there are some
[00:56] signs that a spring housing market is emerging, just a little later than it makes sense given the big picture macro March and April, mortgage rates were going up, there was a high degree of
[01:10] geopolitical uncertainty, and people weren't making big financial decisions. But now, even though mortgage rates have stayed higher, they've at least stabilized, and the war in Iran is still super uncertain, but at least as of
[01:23] today, there is a ceasefire in place. So, maybe people who were intending to buy this spring, but were nervous and some of April, are starting to jump back in. Although that's not going to get us back to a healthy housing market anytime
[01:35] soon, could be a step in the right direction.