December US existing home sales 5.49m vs 5.51m expected

• Prior was 5.61m (revised to 5.65m)
• 3.6 month of inventories from 4.0 months
• Avg house prices +4% year-over-year
• Sales down 2.8% m/m
• Prior sales were +1.4%
• Total sales for the year were 5.45m, which was the highest since 2006

Inventories fell hard and that could be a precursor to price rises in 2017. One of my big beliefs for this year is that house prices in the US will accelerate far more than the consensus expects.