The Pending Home Sales Index rose for the second month in a row.
It declined September, declined 4.6 percent to 89.2 from an upwardly revised reading of 93.5 in August, but was 1.6% higher than September 2007 when it stood at 87.8.
The wrong-way crew at the NAR got this wrong again, running the negative headline: “ Pending Home Sales Down on Tight Credit and Economic Slowdown.”
As we have noted repeatedly over the years, it is the year over year data that matters much more than the monthly data.
The NAR writes: “For all of 2008, home prices will have fallen by more than 20 percent in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and many California and Florida markets, while many markets in middle America will experience little change. Wide variations in home price movements will continue in 2009, with Houston and Denver likely to see respectable price gains while most other markets experience no notable change.”
The takeaway from this data is that areas where prices have normalized — fallen significantly from the 2005 highs — sales volume improves.
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Source:
Pending Home Sales Down on Tight Credit and Economic Slowdown
NAR, November 07, 2008
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2008/phs_down_on_tight_credit
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