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Ask the
Economist
Ralph
McLaughlin
Chief Economist, Trulia
R
alph McLaughlin was named Chief
Economist at Trulia in January
2016. He joined Trulia in August
2014 as the Housing Economist.
In his role as Chief Economist, McLaughlin
leads housing economics research for Trulia
and provides key insights about economic
and housing trends as well as public policy for
house hunters.
Typically, the housing market sees minimal
activity during the week between Christmas
and New Year's. Why were existing-home
sales still able to rebound in December from
the November slowdown? e big jump in
December was an anomaly because of the new
"Know Before You Owe" lending disclosures
went into effect in October, and in November
we saw one of the biggest drops we've ever
seen. Sales that normally would have closed in
November were pushed into December, and
December's numbers really supported that
thought. We think December's numbers are
an anomaly and the result of November's sales
spilling over into December. We don't think
it's representative of any long-term trend of a
large increase in inventory.
at said, 2015 was the best year for exist-
ing-home sales since 2006. ere were about
