There's a healthy outlook from pending homes sales as home sales have been on the rise, potentially signaling a second flow of home sales in response to the popular home buyers tax credit.
A forward-looking indicator, the Pending Home Sales Index, showed that contracts signed in February rose to 97.7, which was up from that of January's 90.2. That is also up 17.3% from February 2009 when it was 83.2. And this data is reflecting contracts, not closings, which will occur one to two months after the sales contract has been signed.
From the numbers, it looks like this improvement is another hopeful sign for the real estate market. The healthy gain is pointing to a healthy outlook that home prices will continue to flatten. However, we need a second flow of home sales to meaningfully draw down inventory and definitively get home values stabilized.
All around the country, the Pending Home Sale Index fluctuated. In the West, the index fell slightly by 4.8%, but it was still 14.6% above a year ago. The Midwest's index jumped 21.8%, which is 18.7% above one year ago. In the Northeast, the index rose slightly by 9.0% and is still 18.9% higher than one year ago. The South's index increased to 9.2%, which is 17.5% higher than it was last year. Get more information from www.Realtor.com.
In addition, there are reports about a rise in home sales activity with ongoing reports of multiple offers in other markets. So, we're looking forward to new reports.
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Nice presentation. We need to be positive about the future
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