By: Dennis Norman
The National Association of REALTORS(R) just released their pending home sales index for January which shows pending sales (houses under contract to be sold but have not closed yet) are down 7.7% nationwide from December and down 6.4% from a year ago.
The actual index for the U.S. for January was 80.4. An index of 100 is equal to the average pending sales activity during 2001 which was the first year for this report. It just so happens that 2001 was the first of four consecutive record years for existing-home sales. NAR indicates that it is thought 2001 sales are fairly close to the higher level of home sales expected in the coming decade and as such, an index of 100 would be representative of a historically high level of sales.
All 4 regions of the U.S. experienced a decline in pending sales from a year ago and all regions except West were down from December. The western region actually saw an increase of 2.4% in pending sales. This is no doubt related to the large number of foreclosures in the region.
For what it’s worth the index for the West was 103.6 which, as I explained above, would indicate a historical high level of sales. The Northeast had the lowest index with 57.8, the Midwest came in at 72.6 and the South at 82.2.
Related posts: