The housing market headed for very “rough waters.” The title is from the National Association of Realtor’s Pending Home Sales report for August in reference to NAR chief “economist” Larry Yun’s commentary on the housing market. Pending homes sales in August, which are based on contracts signed, dropped 2.6% from August. They’re also 2.6% below a year ago August. These are SAAR numbers. The “not seasonally adjusted” numbers were worse, down nearly 4% from August and 3.1% lower than last August.

Once again Yun is blaming the problem on supply. I torpedoed that assertion with facts in last week’s Short Seller’s Journal.  Although, there is indeed a “supply” issue in one regard: there’s a shortage of end user buyers who are required to use, and qualify for the use of, the Government’s de facto subprime mortgage program (as I detailed last week). There’s also a shortage of existing home owners in the mid-price range who can afford to move-up. So yes, in that sense there’s a shortage – it’s just not in homes.

DR Horton (the largest homebuilder in the country) is carrying about the same amount of inventory now as it was carrying at the end of 2007 – around $8.5 billion. The average home price is about the same then as now, which means it is carrying about the same number of homes in inventory. It’s unit sales run-rate was slightly higher in 2007. The point here is that there are plenty of newly built homes available for purchase. Per the Census Bureau, the median sales price of a new home in August was $300k, while the average price was $368k. DH Horton is an averaged price homebuilder.

Per DH Horton’s inventory numbers, there is not a shortage of inventory around the average priced newly built home. Again, there’s a shortage buyers available who can qualify for the debt required to buy one of those homes. This is why the Government has significantly loosened mortgage standards every year since 2014 (see the graphic below). Up against the wall again, I don’t know if the Government will again further loosen the Fannie/Freddie mortgage requirements. If it does nothing, which would be the sensible decision, the housing market is going to sustain a rapid downward price “adjustment.”

Housing stocks are in a mini “melt-up” though it’s somewhat subdued relative to the melt-up in semiconductor stocks. This is despite the threat of rising interest rates and rapidly deteriorating demand-side fundamentals. This is the signal that the end is near for these stocks. Ironically, the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey for September released Friday showed that consumers who judge the current home-buying conditions as favorable plunged to a 5-yr low. This is notwithstanding the easiest mortgage approval standards in over two years:

The graphic above shows consumer perception of homebuying conditions on the left and the latest Fannie Mae lender survey on credit standards on the right. As you can see, the credit standards are the easiest in at least 2-years. Note:  The Fannie survey only dates back to Q3 2015. I would bet good money that the current credit conditions are the easiest since right before the previous housing bubble popped in 2008.

I’ve been discussing and detailing, the alleged “supply issue” affecting home sales is, in fact, a demand-driven issue. This graphic illustrates this:

The graph above is also from Fannie Mae’s latest housing market survey. As you can see, the demand for GSE (Fannie/Freddie/FHA) purchase mortgages has plunged since Q3 2016. The demand for non-GSE and Ginnie Mae purchase mortgages has also declined significantly since Q3 2016.

There’s an online MLS home-listing site called REColorado. I’m signed up to get listing and price-change alerts as they occur in several difference zip codes the represent the areas in metro-Denver that have been hottest. Colorado has experienced a massive inflow of people from all over country, especially California, which has made the Denver area one of the hottest housing markets since 2012, when the State fully legalized marijuana. Since mid-summer, I’ve been “price-change” alerts on homes over $700k on a daily basis. As I write this, I just received two more today. One of the homes started at $1.8 million in September and has taken the price down 11% over three price drops. The other house has an asking price of $779k but has been reduced more than 8% in four price reductions since June. If this is happening in metro-Denver, it’s happening in most formerly “hot” areas. Yes, there will be a few areas around the country that remain “hot” for awhile (like SoCal), but those areas will eventually suffer the most just like in 2008.

I want to reiterate that the housing market is a great short here. The only explanation for the move in the homebuilder stocks this past week is that it’s a momentum-driven technical run. The stocks I’ve been presenting in the last several issues will be lower this time next year. Probably a lot lower. Redfin (RDFN), the online real estate brokerage that I presented last week, closed Friday down $2.88 (10.3%) from the previous Friday. It’s going lower. It’s a good bet that this stock will be trading at or below $20 by Christmas. Zillow Group (ZG) is down 20% since a re-recommended shorting it in the June 25th SSJ issue at $50.69. I will say that I did not expect that to be close to ZG’s all-time high it was an obvious short to me at that point. Companies that earn commissions and fees directly from (RDFN) or related to (ZG) home sales volume will be the leading indicators.

The above analysis and commentary is from the latest issue of the Short Seller’s Journal.  You can out more about subscribing to this weekly investment newsletter here:  Short Seller’s Journal subscription info.  Despite the major indices hitting new all-time highs everyday now, there are many stocks that are declining.  The perfect example is Zillow Group, which I recommended shorting at $50 in June .  It is currently down 18% (an 18% gain if you are short, more if you bought the puts I recommended).  Subscribers also get 50% off the price of subscribing to the Mining Stock Journal.