Homebuilder exchange traded funds were in the red Wednesday after the National Association of Realtors downwardly revised existing home sales and inventory data for the period between 2007 and 2010 by 14%.
The realtors group recently revealed it has been incorrectly announcing home sales numbers since 2007.
“We’re capturing some new home data that should have been filtered out, and we also discovered that some properties were being listed in more than one list,” said Walter Maloney, spokesman for National Association of Realtors. [Builder ETFs Rise on Pending Home Sales]
Last week, NAR announced that the reported home sales numbers since 2007 will need to be revised lower, reports Ethan Roberts for Investorplace. NAR was counting some sold properties more than once along with some new home sales, which were technically not supposed to be recorded in the existing home sales data.
According to analysts, any downward revisions to existing home sales will hurt the value of homebuilder shares. [Homebuilder ETFs Decline After Existing Home Sales]
Housing starts rose 9.3% in November, although the multifamily sector drove much of the gain. The numbers exceeded analysts expectations, reports Timothy R. Homan for Bloomberg. [ETF Chart of the Day: Homebuilders]