Pending home sales data was quite a bit better than expected this morning, up 8.2%, more than double economists forecasts. That suggests a big jump in existing home sales data in the months ahead.

The problem is a lot of these sales never close. Why? The banks have become fastidious mortgage lenders after lending hundreds of thousands of dollars to anyone who could fog a mirror 5-years ago. How the pendulum has swung.

The old law of unintended consequences at work. Hopefully the pendulum will sing back from the extremes to some happy medium before long…