NAR COMMENTS RE PENDING HOME SALES TRENDING UP

While inventories are falling, pendings have trended up in 7 of the last 11 months. 


Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors Chief Economist, said that the upward trending of home sale pendings bodes well for home prices. “Absorption of inventory is the key to price improvement, and this solid gain in contract signings implies that home values in many localities are or will soon be stabilizing as inventories get absorbed at a faster pace,” he said.  “Home sales still could be 15 to 20 percent higher,” Yun said.  

 “If banks would simply return to normal sound underwriting standards and begin lending to more creditworthy borrowers, we’d get a much faster recovery in the housing sector.”  Yun, as is the common thread, said that healthy job creation is necessary to ensure a solid recovery both in home sales and the overall economy.


A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed, though the sale usually is finalized within one or two months of signing.