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Pending Home Sales Index Increases

By Anonymous

From the NAR: Pending Home Sales Up for Three Months in a Row

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2 percent above April 2008 when it was 87.5.
...
[Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist] cautions that the reporting sample for pending home sales is smaller than that of existing-home sales, so it is subject to greater variability. ?In addition, the relationship between contracts on pending home sales and closings on existing-home sales is taking longer than in the past for several reasons,? he said. ?Mortgage processing time has increased, it is taking many months to close on those homes requiring short sales with lender approval, and some sales are falling through at the last moment.?

This is for contracts signed in April and that are expected to close in late May or June.

Note: Ignore the "affordability index". That just means interest rates were low in April.

Full post as published by Calculated Risk on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).