Pending Home Sales Index Hits
Lowest Level Since March 2003
by Robert Schroeder
From MarketWatch
May 01, 2007
Pending sales of U.S. homes fell by 4.9% in March, indicating sales closed in April are likely to remain soft, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
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The group's pending home sales index was down 10.5% from March 2006 and is at its lowest level since March 2003.
David Lereah, the NAR's chief economist, predicted that home sales will be "relatively sluggish" in the second quarter but that a "modest uptrend" is on the horizon for the second half of 2007."Although the weather improved in March, we're starting to see the effects of a decline in subprime lending and tighter lending standards," Lereah said in a news release.
A home sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed. Such a sale is usually finalized within one or two months of signing.
Pending home sales rose in the West but dropped in all other parts of the country, NAR reported.
In the West, the pending home sales index was up 1.6% in March, but 8.6% below a year ago. In the Northeast, it fell 4.9% from February and was 14% below March 2006. In the Midwest, the index dropped 6.9% and was 9.5% below March 2006. The index was off 7.1% in the South, 10.6% below a year ago.
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