Pending home sales dipped but contract activity increased in January – NAR

Supply constraints continue to hold back sales

Pending home sales dipped but contract activity increased in January – NAR

Pending home sales in the US declined in January, with three of the four major regions reporting month-over-month drops, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“Pending home sales fell in January because there are simply not enough homes to match the demand on the market,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said. “That said, there has been an increase in permits and requests to build new homes.”

The NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) edged down 2.8% to 122.8 last month. Meanwhile, contract signings jumped 13% year over year, representing the eight-consecutive month of increases in housing permits for single-family homes. Yun said that the rise in contract activity is a good sign that the disparity between housing supply and demand could be easing this coming spring and summer due to seasonal upswing in inventory.

Regionally, pending home sales transactions in the Northeast declined 7.4% month over month to a reading of 101.6 in January. The Midwest PHSI also posted a monthly decline, down 0.9% to 113.2%. In the South, the index climbed 0.1% to 151.3, while the index in the West dwindled 7.8% to 104.6 last month.

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