Prepare For Ugly Existing Home Sales

July existing home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. Analysts are expecting a reading of 4.65 million homes, which would be the weakest reading since March 2009 when 4.61 million existing homes were sold. Many think sales will come in much lower than expected even with 30-year mortgage rates at record lows. Persistenly high unemployment and an uneven recovery have hurt home sales. Also, even with mortgage rates at record lows, many people cannot qualify for loans because banks have tightened lending standards. Homes sales picked up in the spring when the government offered tax credits, but those expired on April 30. Now the housing market will show us how it's faring on its own with no government support. Like we said: the reading should be very ugly this morning.