Despite exuberance in existing home sales, new home sales just printed 551k SAAR - missing expectations for the first time since Oct 2015 - sliding by the most since Sept 2015. With the last 3 months of exuberant increases - to 8 year highs - now revised drastically lower; and median prices tumbling to the lowest since June 2015, the picture of the US housing recovery is considerably less rosy than before... time for a rate-hike?

This is what we said last month when new home sales soared to 8 year highs...

Here is what drove the overall surge: a clearly "goalseeked" number resulting from a massive surge in Northeast sales, one which will be promptly revised lower next month.

And now this happens!!

With sales dropping the most in 8 months...

Even with prices being slashed to 10 month lows...

Charts: Bloomberg