Pending home sales came out today for February and they show an increase of 2.1%.
This is good news for the housing market as the news lately has been less than stellar, as you can see below. There is life in the housing market, as evidenced by the numbers today. How it will play out going forward is that I think we will continue to experience this up and down pattern as the supply of distressed properties, or the so called "shadow inventory" is slowly absorbed by the market. This is the new normal and overall, it's good for the housing market.
Locally we are seeing an improvement in new sales and listings, as compared to a few months ago.
What poses a real challenge are the economy(jobs) and lenders(loans). It goes without saying that if the jobs recovery stalls, the housing market will stall. The ability to obtain a loan,which is key to an improving housing market, is showing signs of life.
Existing home sales fell 9.6% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million units from 5.36 million units in January. The inventory of unsold homes on the market increased 3.5% to 3.488 million, an 8.6-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 7.5-month supply in January.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending March 18 rose 2.7%. Refinancing applications increased 2.7%. Purchase volume rose 2.7%.
New home sales fell 16.9% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 250,000 units from a rate of 284,000 units in January. Economists had expected a pace of 290,000 units in February.
Tomorrow the Case Shiller Home Price Index will be announced for January. The index posted a downward trend in both the November and December numbers.
I agree this is encouraging news. We have a long ways to go but are making progress! - David
SEEMS like progress....BUT, note it is "pending" home sales....I negotiatei short sales for agents and we have TONS of "pending" sales (most of ours will go through b/c we are good..... ;-)
But, as always, don't elt teh statistics fool ya!!!!
The start of good news...but like everything else the stats can sometimes be fudged....Lets see how many of those pendings close for sure. You also show inventory time has gone up...not a good thing.