San Francisco Real Estate - Residential

Pending-home sales rise 4.3% in August

Oh really? We have been saying all along that these reports of gloom and doom in the housing market are probably overstated. Now that August numbers are in, reports are that it's not looking so bad afterall. Here's the October 2 MarketWatch report from Dow Jones.

- Mick Orton
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Pending sales of U.S. existing homes rose by 4.3% in August, indicating the housing market may be stabilizing, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

Pending-home sales are down 14.1% in the past year, the real estate industry group said.
"Our sense is that home sales may have reached a low in August," said David Lereah, chief economist for the NAR in a statement. Read the full report.

"With fewer new listings coming on the market, we should be able to draw down the inventory supply early next year to the point where home prices will rise, but at a slower pace than historic norms," Lereah said.

"The gain was not enough to suggest that the downtrend has ended," said Maury Harris, economist for UBS, based on the recent declines in mortgage applications.

The pending-sales index rose 9.2% in the West, 4% in the South and 3.6% in the Northeast. The index was flat in the Midwest.

Sales are recorded as "pending" when a sales contract is signed; they are recorded as "sold" when the sale closes, usually one or two months later... Read more here.

- MarketWatch

posted by SFResidence.com @ 8:06 AM