From NAR’s Research Division this past week:
“Pending home sales have edged up, hinting at a possible pickup of sales activity in coming months, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in February, rose 2.1 percent to 82.1 from a reading of 80.4 in January, but is 1.4 percent below February 2008 when it was 83.3.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market is continuing to under perform. “Pending home sales have a way to go for there to be a meaningful increase, but recent increases in shopping activity are hopeful indicators that we’ll see additional sales gains,” he said. “More buyers are getting into the market to take advantage of stimulus incentives and much improved housing affordability conditions, but it will take a few months before we could see this turn up in measurable sales contract activity.”
The Nashville real estate market has also seen an uptick in pending home sales, gaining 3.5 percent since January 2009. Year over year, Nashville pending home sales are down 2.1 percent. New construction sales make up a majority of the new pending home sales in the Nashville housing market while traditional resale homes are beginning to languish.
