Good news in a sluggish economy- Pending homes sales increase. A NAR (National Association of Realtors) Pending Home Sales index reported more pending homes sales in July than in June. The NAR index, making its sixth straight increase, showed an increase of 3.2% in July, the quickest climb since the group starting tracking the market 10 years ago. This was up 12% from July's '08 level. This reading has far exceeded forecasts of economists that were surveyed. The first-time homebuyers tax credit is cited as the major reason for this trend. The NAR index also shows that the West out-performed the Northeast and Midwest, jumping over 12% in July, and that the South also did well.
This increase was much better than the 1.5% increase economists were looking for.
One point to understand is that this flux of activity is partially (or mostly?) due to the $8,000 tax credit that expires at the end of November. Many are taking advantage of the full tax credit. Also noted is that these figures are for pending properties, not closed properties.
Pending home sales in Northeast declined 3% in July, but remain 4.7% higher than year ago. In the South, pending home sales activity rose 3.1%, which makes it up 12% from a year ago. In the Midwest, sales fell 2% but are 8.1% higher than a year ago. In the West, the index jumped 12.1% to 112.5 and 20% above a year ago.
*photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net
Posted by Mike Ciucci on
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Posted by Pawleys Island real estate on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 12:32pmLeave A Comment