In January, existing home sales dropped by 5.3% M/M to 4.49M; while the consensus was looking for a modest increase. The previous figure was downwardly revised from 6.5% M/M to 4.4% M/M. Looking at the details, sales of condo’s dropped by 10.2% M/M, while sales of single family homes fell by 4.7% M/M. Months supply rose from 9.4 in December to 9.6 in January. Both median and average prices came out lower. These data indicate that the worst is not over and the uptick in sales of existing homes in December was only temporary. In the coming months, it will be interesting to see whether the Obama housing plan will start having its impact.