Pending home sales rise for 9th month in a row

The pending home sales index rose a seasonally adjusted 3.7% in October from September, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported. The index is up 31.8% compared with last October. The index rose 6% in September.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, said the increase in pending home sales wasn’t entirely due to the tax credit.

“Based on the demographics of our growing population, existing-home sales should be in the range of 5.5 million to 6.0 million annually,” he said.

NAR projects 2010 existing homes sales to rise 10.8% to 5.7 million compared with 5.15 million in 2009. New-home sales are forcasted to rise 42% in 2010 to 561,000 from 394,000 in 2009. Home prices are expected to rise about 4%, according to Yun’s forecast

NAR’s Yun on Foreclosures

Pending home sales up 7th month-Highest since March 2007

August pending home sales rise to 2 1/2 year high as

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday its index of sales agreements rose 6.4 percent from July to 103.8, beating forecasts. It was the highest since March 2007 and 12 percent above a year ago.

West Leading the Way Out of Recession

Pending home sales rose 3.2 percent from June to July, with a surge in sales in the western U.S. outweighing declines in the Northeast and Midwest, the National Association of Realtors said today. Pending home sales were up 12.1 percent from June to July in the West and 3.1 percent in the South, but fell 3 percent in the Northeast and 2 percent in the Midwest regions. All four regions saw a year-over-year increase in pending home sales, led by the West (20 percent) and followed by the South (12 percent), Midwest (8.1 percent) and Northeast (4.7 percent).

California home sales have been up year-over-year for 13 months, and it seems to be leading the US out of the housing slump.

5x: Pending Sales up Fifth Straight Month

Pending U.S. home sales rose in June for the fifth straight month, (first time since 2003) the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.Pending home sales index rose 3.6 percent to 94.6, from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index to come in at 91.2.

“The housing market is he

aling and the patient is getting healthier at an accelerating pace,” said economist Joel L. Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc.

Los Angeles Times Declares a Bottom

Southern California median home sales price surged in June with sales volume reached a 30-month high. Prices increased to a new average of $265,000.

From the LA Times:

“Southern California home prices may have finally hit bottom, with median values rising last month for the first significant increase in two years, new data show.”

For the first time in 9 months fewer than half of the sales were foreclosures while the prices rose 6.4% in May.

“I think we can now say with fair degree of confidence the pace of real home price declines has slowed dramatically,” said Los Angeles economist Christopher Thornberg, who was an early predictor of the housing bubble.

“Sales in many higher-cost neighborhoods couldn’t have gotten much lower, so this recent uptick in activity should come as no surprise,” MDA DataQuick President John Walsh said. “The recession and problem mortgages are fueling more high-end distress, hence more high-end bargains.”

The percentage of homes that sold in June for more than $500,000 rose to about 20% of all homes purchased, up from 18% in May.

Additionally only 45% of the homes sold had been foreclosed upon, DataQuick said, the lowest percentage since July 2008. Foreclosures peaked at 57% of total sales in February.  Escrow closed on a total of 23,262 new and resale houses and condominiums in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and San Diego counties last month. That was up 12% from 20,775 in May and up 29% from a year earlier.

Los Angeles County’s median home price in June was $320,000, up from $300,000 in May….In Orange County, the median price went from $410,000 in May to $418,000 in June…The median price in San Diego County rose from $295,000 in May to $314,000 in June.

Vancouver Real Estate Sales for June 75% Higher than June 2008

REBGV just released Vancouver real estate numbers for June, as follows.

The combination of low interest rates and more affordable pricing helped propel Greater Vancouver home sale numbers to the second all-time highest total for the month of June.The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) reports that sales of detached, attached and apartment properties increased 75.6 per cent in June 2009 to 4,259, from the 2,425 sales recorded in June 2008. The figure is just short of the record-breaking 4,333 sales which occurred in June 2005.New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties declined 17.9 per cent to 5,372 in June 2009 compared to June 2008, when 6,546 new units were listed. However, new listings increased 13.5 per cent from May to June of this year. Total active listings in Greater Vancouver currently sit at 13,252, down 27 per cent from June 2008 and 2.9 per cent below the active listings count at the end of May 2009.“Price reductions and low interest rates have created an improvement in affordability, which is causing the number of sales to rise to levels comparable to 2003 to 2007,” Scott Russell, REBGV president said.

source: http://www.vancouverreflections.com/2009/07/03/vancouver-real-estate-sales-for-june-75-higher-than-june-2008/

Pending Home Sales Rise Biggest Since 2001

Pending Home Sales Rise 6.7% / Third Straight Month of increase

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7%, to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2% above April 2008, when it was 87.5, the group said. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters (TRI) had expected the index would edge up to 85 from a reading of 84.6 in March. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001.

Pending home sales activity was greatest in the Northeast, where the index increased 32.6%, to 78.9, in April, 0.8% above a year ago. The only region that showed a decrease was the South, where the index declined 0.2%, to 93.0, 3.5% higher than a year ago. In the Midwest the index rose 9.8%, to 90.4, and is 11.1% above April 2008. In the West the index rose 1.8%, to 94.8, but is 2.9% below a year ago.

NAR’s Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions, and while the total number of existing-home sales is expected to improve, there will be sharp local variations. “The market has already bottomed in some areas, but this is an unusual housing cycle with some areas improving rapidly while others languish or decline,” Yun said in a news release.

Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer for future existing-home sales.

Paul Dales, U.S. economist for Capital Economics in Toronto, said i

“The pending home sales index has now improved for three months in a row, adding to the evidence that housing activity is finding a floor,” Dales wrote. Nevertheless, even if existing-home sales were to rise to 5.1 million, they would still be 30% below their peak. Accordingly, even if activity is finding a floor, it is at staggeringly low levels.”