Pending Home Sales Down in California; Distressed Sales Increase

Pending home sales in California were brought down by lack of inventory while the share of distressed sales increased, according to data from the ""California Association of Realtors"":http://www.car.org/ (C.A.R.).

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C.A.R.'s Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) decreased 20.5 percent month-over-month as the index slipped from November's revised 103.5 to December's 82.3. Year-over-year, pending sales were down 6.5 percent from December 2011.

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After seeing declines, the combined share of all distressed property sales ticked up to 36.4 percent in December, up from 35.1 percent in November, but down from 51.6 percent in December 2011.

In particular, the share of short sales increased, rising to 25 percent in December, up from 23.4 percent in November and up from 24 percent a year ago.

While short sales increased, the share of REO sales saw a small decrease, slipping to 11 percent from 11.3 percent in November. In December 2011, the share of REO sales was 27.2 percent. C.A.R. also noted the supply of REOs available for sale fell, with the Unsold Inventory Index at 1.9 months in December, down from 2.1 months in November.

Non-distressed property sales saw the first decrease in 11 months, with the share of non-distressed sales down to 63.6 percent in December compared to 64.9 percent in November. Compared to a year ago, non-distressed sales were still up from 48.4 percent.