Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR
Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for September showing pending sales in the U.S. rose again for the eighth consecutive month – marking the longest streak since since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001. The pending home sales index for the US rose 6.1 percent from August. Here in the Midwest the pending home sales index rose 8.1 percent from August marking the third month in a row the index in the Midwest increased.
As I have expressed previously, I’m somewhat cautious about getting too excited about these recent encouraging reports on the housing market as I feel we still have many challenges out there.
- Dennis Norman
For starters, the home-buyer tax credit, which was stimulated home sales in the past couple of months, is set to expire the end of this month. Congress may extend it and if so that will be another shot in the arm for the housing market however we are still seeing nearly record numbers of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies which are going to continue to put downward pressure on the market. The nearly 10 percent unemployment rate isn’t helping either. Continue reading “Pending home sales in midwest rise 8.1 percent in September“
