Tag Archives: Pending Home Sales

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that pending home sales rose for the month of June, marking the third of the last four months its index has increased. Pending sales last month were up 2.4 percent from May and 19.8 percent from June 2010. The measurement is a forward-looking index based on contracts but not actual closings. Some economists are warning not to read too much into the latest numbers considering contract cancellations are on the rise.

Been waiting for the spring homebuying season to hit? According to a new industry report released Wednesday, it may be settling in. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says contracts in place for sales of existing homes rose 8.2 percent in May compared to the trade group's upwardly revised reading for April and are 13.4 percent higher than in May 2010. NAR's latest reading marks the first time since April 2010 that contract activity has come in above year-ago levels.

Twenty-eight percent of homebuyers in California who signed their name on the dotted line last month are buying REO properties. At the same time, short sale deals made up some 19 percent of the state's pending home sales in May. These are the latest figures released by the California Association of Realtors. While the state's 48 percent distressed market share is significant by all accounts, some areas of California are nearly fully saturated in distressed sales. In Madera County, REOs and short sales claimed 90 percent of all pending sales last month.

Pending sales of existing homes - which in recent months have been nearly 40 percent comprised of REO and short sale properties - slipped much further than the market was expecting in April, signaling a feeble start to what typically would be the strongest home buying season of the year. The National Association of Realtors says following fairly commendable gains in February and March, its pending sales index dropped 11.6 percent in April. Economists had been expecting a decline, but significantly smaller at just 1 percent.

California's distressed home sales dropped in April for the second consecutive month, according to the state's local Realtors group. The California Association of Realtors reports that the total share of all distressed property types sold statewide - including REOs and short sales - declined to 48 percent, down from 51 percent in March. The group says bargain hunters and investors were joined last month by homebuyers who are timing their decisions to coincide with the start of the spring season and targeting more non-distressed properties.

After declining for two months, pending sales of existing homes unexpectedly increased in February, the National Association of Realtors reports. The trade group's pending home sales index rose 2.1 percent compared to January but remains 8.2 percent below February 2010. The index reading for last month was 90.8. A reading of 100 indicates a healthy level of sales activity. The last time the pending sale index registered above the 100 mark was in April 2010 when homebuyers were rushing to sign contracts before the homebuyer tax credit deadline.

Industry data released Monday showed that the number of homebuyers who signed contracts in January for the purchase of previously owned homes declined from both the previous month and year-ago levels. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says its January index of pending home sales is down 2.8 percent from the December reading, which was revised downward from a previously reported gain to reflect the start of a two-month decline in pending sales. NAR's January reading is 1.5 percent below the pending sales measurement recorded 12 months earlier.

The number of contracts signed for purchases of previously owned homes rose again in December, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Thursday. The trade group's pending home sales index increased 2.0 percent compared to its November reading. NAR says this forward-looking indicator typically signals where existing-home sales levels should be within one or two months. It marks the third consecutive month NAR's gauge of home sales to come has climbed higher.

According to RealEstate Business Intelligence (RBI), a source of real estate data, analytics, and business intelligence for real estate professionals in the Mid-Atlantic, the Baltimore housing market continued to look bleak in December. Based on figures from RBI's newly launched pending home sales index, the average price of homes sold in the Baltimore area dropped 6.6 percent, from $283,269 at the end of 2009 to $264,500 by the end of 2010. At the same time, active listing inventory grew by 10 percent.

The number of contracts signed for purchases of previously owned homes climbed again in November, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) late last week. The organization's pending home sales index rose 3.5 percent based on contracts signed in November. That follows a record 10 percent jump recorded for the month of October and beat even the most modest market expectations. NAR describes the trend as indicative of ""a gradual recovery into 2011.""