Pending home sales reversed a two-month trend with an increase in August,, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors…(NAR)
- M-O-M: The Pending Home Sales Index increased 8.1% from July to 119.5 in August.
- Y-O-Y: The index was actually down 8.3% when compared to the same time last year.
BEAT THE STREET: Economists had projected a much smaller increase of only 1.4%
Contract signings rose in all regions from the month before with the Midwest and South leading the way…
- The Midwest lead the way with a 10.4% jump to 115.4 last month. This, however, was still down 5.9% from one year ago. The South had the second highest increase at 8.6% to 141.8 which was still down 6.3% from August 2020.
- The West was up 7.2% in August to 107.0, however that was still down 9.2% from a year prior. The Northeast saw a 4.6% increase to 96.2 in August, and saw the biggest drop year-over-year at 15.8%.
Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said that the growth in the Midwest and the South were a result of affordability issues…
- “The more moderately priced regions of the South and Midwest are experiencing stronger signing of contracts to buy, which is not surprising,” Yun continued. “This can be attributed to some employees who have the flexibility to work from anywhere, as they choose to reside in more affordable places.”
REMINDER: An index of 100 is equal to the average level of contract activity during 2000 which fell within the range of 5.0 to 5.5 million.