US Pending Home sales increase in July; Midwest home sales decrease by 2 percent

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Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, NAR

By: Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS(R) issued their Pending Home Sales Index Report for July showing pending sales in the U.S. were up for the sixth consecutive month, the best streak since NAR began the pending home sale index in 2001.

Here in the Midwest pending home sales for July were not as strong showing a 2.0 percent drop from June, however still 8.1% above a year ago.  The only other region that saw a decline in month to month pending home sales in July was the Northeast with a 3.0 percent decrease from June.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the housing market momentum has clearly turned for the better.  “The recovery is broad-based across many parts of the county.  Housing affordability has been at record highs this year with the added stimulus of a first time buyer tax credit,” he said.

As the sales numbers and other housing reports keep showing signs of encouragement there is more and more talk that we have seen the bottom and even of a recovery being in progress.  At the same time, however, there are plenty of qualified opinions that are calling this a false bottom and cautioning that mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates are going to drag the market back down.  Only time will tell, but in the meantime it’s nice to see some good news about the real estate market.

Below is an interview with Lawrence Yun by REALTOR(R) Magazine.

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