Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says longer term comparisons of pending home sales show the most relevance. “The housing market is clearly superior this year compared with the past four years. The latest increase in home contract signings marks 13 consecutive months of year-over-year gains,” he said. “Actual closings for existing-home sales have been notably higher since the beginning of the year and we’re on track to see a 9 to 10 percent improvement in total sales for 2012.”
Nationwide
- Annually: contracts increased 13.3% over May 2011
- Monthly: contracts rose 5.9% from April to May.
Region
- Northeast - pending home sales rose 4.8% from April to May and are 19.8% higher than May 2011
- Midwest - showed a monthly increase of 6.3% and rose 22.1% over last year
- South - contracts are up 1.1% in May and increased 11.9% above May 2011
- West - showed a rise of 14.5% in May and increased 4.8% over a year ago
The Pending Home Sales Index has continued to show a steady increase in contracts activity in 2012.
- April 2012 - contracts increased 14.4% over April 2011
- March 2012 - a rise of 12.8% was reported over March 2011
- February 2012 - contracts jumped 9.2% over February 2011
- January 2012 - rose 8% over January 2011
The increase in pending home sales as the summer housing market gets underway indicates buyers are becoming more motivated as mortgage rates drop and sectors of the economy slowly show signs of improvement.
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