Existing-Home Sales: What to Expect

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Existing-home sales are expected to have fallen slightly in October. The National Association of Realtors' report is due out Tuesday morning.

Fewer people applying for mortgage applications in the month and a decline in the index of pending home sales point to the possibility for disappointment in Tuesday's data, according to Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist at Channel Capital Research and author of Follow the Fed to Investment Success.

Roberts told TheStreet that sales of previously occupied homes likely fell a bit last month, based on leading indicators of soft demand for home loans and a drop in pending home sales.

Still, mortgage rates remain near all-time lows which could have prompted potential homebuyers to go ahead with their purchases. That means a surprise to the upside is also a possibility, Roberts said.

The consensus call is for existing-home sales to have fallen to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.42 million in October, down from 4.53 million units in September.

Existing-home sales rebounded a better-than-expected 10% in September, well off July's 15-year low rate of 3.84 million existing-homes sold.

>>Existing-Home Sales Rise 10%